Demon and Scion
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: Once upon a space/time summon, a Hokage summoned a strange girl...
1. Enter the Heroine

**Part 1: Enter the Nin- Hero.**

The Third Hokage of the Hidden Village of the Leaf sat back down in his study after being disturbed by yet another prank by the excitable Naruto Uzumaki. He had to shake his head at the boy's antics. It appeared he had decided that any attention was better than no attention. Unfortunately, it was not breaking the disdain and hatred shown to him by the villagers.

The old man's eyes studied the scroll he had been working on. It was supposed to be a summoning scroll for owls, if he could convince them to sign it. If their were actually sapient owls to summon. He had not noticed when he put the brush down, but it appeared he had not finished his last stroke quite correctly. It could probably still summon something, but the definition was confused slightly.

With a shrug, he decided to test it. Using a burst of intense chakra, he summoned a massive cloud of smoke. That usually entailed that something succeeded.

A female voice called out, causing Sarutobi Hiruzen's blood to chill. As the smoke dispersed, his worst fears were confirmed. He had summoned a young girl. He bowed his head. "I am Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Hokage of the Hidden Village among the Leaves. And I am afraid I have accidentally summoned you here. What lands are you from?" Hopefully it would only be from one of the nearby lands.

The young blonde girl looked confused, then frowned. "I am from the United States of America. Accidentally summoned? You are a mage?"

Not a country he was familiar with, so the chance of returning her whence she came were diminishing rapidly. "No, I am a ninja. Have you ever heard of the Land of Fire?" At her shake of her head, he bowed again. "I am afraid I may have done you an accidentally disservice. I can not send you home."

"What _can_ you do for me?" she demanded. "I have important duties that I am failing my mother."

He was not looking forward to explaining that he could only offer her housing and schooling, like any other orphan. This was, unfortunately, something that had happened before. So he had precedence to guide him.

* * *

Sheila Henderson, sometime heroine and now dimensionally stranded person, was going back to school. It was a requirement for her living stipend that she have to go to school until she was sixteen and had to start paying for room and board on her own. She followed the chunin into the classroom, relaxing a little when she saw that she was _only_ going to stick out due to her clothes. There were actually two other girls that had blonde hair and one of the boys also.

Iruka, the scarred chunin teacher, had her stand up front. "We have a new student from a far off land. Please introduce yourself."

She bowed slightly. "I'm Sheila Henderson. I have become stranded in this land and was offered schooling here."

"Take a seat next to Naruto." Iruka pointed towards an open spot next to the blonde boy wearing an orange jumpsuit.

The boy had what looked like ritual scars on his cheeks of three whiskers on either cheek. "Hi! I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"

She nodded her head as she sat down. "Can you help me a little bit? I don't read and write your language yet." Though it looked very similar to the different glyphs of Japanese. So hopefully it would be quick to learn.

The day passed dreadfully slow as the chunin explained about an important battle in the Second Great Ninja War. After lunch, they were all asked to showcase their throwing skill. Sheila frowned at that. She had never really practiced with thrown weapons and she did not want to show her pistol. With a shrug, she passed the time quickly learning the basics of throwing shurikan and the odd dagger they used.

On her second attempt, she surprised the girl with long blonde hair as she started to nail the center of the target.

"Very good, Sheila. You are picking this up quickly," Iruka called out. "Now the kunai again."

The triple thunk signaled her hitting the heart of the target perfectly.

"Whoa! That's cool!" That was Naruto, of course.

"Go ten for ten with kunai," the teacher ordered.

She was quite focused and all ten of her kunai hit the target quite squarely, if not as perfectly as she would have liked. More of the throwing knives were handed to her, so she kept going.

A dark-haired boy that was wearing a navy-blue shirt with a symbol of a fan on the back of it was frowning. He could see her improving as she continued throwing.

"Go girl!" the strawberry-blonde named Sakura shouted out as she hopped up and down excitedly.

"Okay, that's enough. Very good. Nice to see that your throwing skills transferred over to the kunai that well. Everyone, let's run around the school at least three times."

With a groan, everyone took off at a jog except for Sheila, who took off at full speed and started pumping her arms like a trained runner. She passed a couple of straggling girls before they finished their first lap. Even the boys were looking a bit surprised when she passed the slowest of them and started catching up to the middle of the pack only half way through her second lap. She was severely huffing and puffing at the end of her third lap, but finished first by a large margin.

"At least she'll be able to run away," a boy with cheek tatoos on his cheeks called out.

"If you can talk, you aren't running fast enough," the chunin shouted at him. "So, you are a sprinter?"

"At my last school, yes. I need to work on my stamina a lot." The young pre-teen was leaning on her knees.

* * *

A week had passed and Sheila was fitting in as best as possible. She had managed to get a few basic 'shinobi' outfits. A gi top tied over pants. Arms and legs were wrapped and she wore a very standard sandal that the ninja favored.

Her school work had quickly matched anyone else in the class, including the 'resident genius' of Sakura Haruno, much to the other girl's displeasure.

"Okay, it is time to do a spot test on the body illusion, 'henge'." Iruka had Sakura start off, having the girl transform herself into the teacher.

It went fairly quickly, with only Naruto transforming himself into the old Hokage instead of the teacher, though it was a very convincing change. Finally it was Sheila's turn. She carefully made the hand-signs and then tried to channel 'spirit-experience' and 'body-energy'. With a poof of smoke, a slightly deformed adult chunin appeared. She desperately tried to hold the illusion, but it failed in only five seconds.

"You'll need to work on that, but that's not horrible. Did they teach that in your last school?" Iruka asked cheerfully.

"The art of chakra molding was not taught in my last class. To be quite truthful, ninja like you are training are not generally known in my land." She gave him a helpless shrug.

"So you learned how to mould chakra within a week to do a basic transformation?" Iruka asked, actually getting the class to quiet down with his question as they listened raptly.

"Um, yes?" she answered carefully.

"Well, if you keep that up you should graduate on time with everyone in six months quite easily."

Naruto looked shocked as he pointed at the girl. "She's learning that quickly?"

There were a lot of glares from the girls (and strangely) the reclusive Sasuke Uchiha.

"I'm academically gifted," the girl replied as modestly as possible.

"You know, since your last school didn't teach chakra, what were you learning?" the chunin asked from the front of the classroom.

"Oh, I was majoring in politic science, structural engineering and internal medicine with a minor in ancient and modern history."

"Majoring? Is that a university level of training?" Iruka asked faintly. "You are only eleven, right?"

"Er, yes."

Sakura was now just as shocked as Naruto had been, pointing her hand while her mouth just opened and closed.

"You broke Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed as he pointed accusingly at her again.

Ino finally spoke up with, "Naruto, she's probably more intelligent than everyone but the Third Hokage." She shot the taller girl a glare. "Well, if she's telling the truth anyways."

"Oh, yeah. She already reads better than I do," Naruto admitted. "Now I ask her for help when I don't understand things."

Iruka shook his head. "Okay, let's head out for fighting practice."

The students all headed out and circled several round practice areas that were sectioned off by circles on the ground. They had a couple of teachers that sparred with students to show them new moves and one teacher was overseeing several students fighting each other. The class had mostly split up by gender, girls on one side and boys on another. Though there were a gaggle of girls watching one of the stoic boys quite closely from the edge.

"I want to fight Sheila!" Ino called out abruptly. She wanted to test the 'genius' to see if she was lacking in fighting skill.

Sheila fell into a rough stance she had picked up from fighting monsters. Well, when she wasn't _just_ dodging or running away. This was a good opportunity to actually figure out how to fight better. After all, her pistol would be considered an unusual weapon here.

The longer-haired blonde just smirked. That was a really weak stance. She lashed out with a punch, then spun to try to put her elbow into the taller girl's stomach. The punch she received in response was fast, if sloppy. She shook it off and then started to get really serious, only to feel totally over matched by the girl's reading of her skill.

Ino _knew_ that the girl wasn't as skilled as she was, but she was insanely fast. Even the chunin watching their fight was pursing his lips as he watched them fight.

He interrupted the fight after another two minutes. "You haven't a lick of real skill, but you have fast reflexes and some strength," Mizuki called out with a false smile. "Take a stance again." He then corrected some of the very elementary mistakes of how she held her arms and stood there. "Now Sakura and Ami."

Sheila stepped back and started to throw punches from her new, modified stance as the other girls started to practice. She ignored the snigger's from a clique of girls.

That same dark-haired boy from before watched her practice, seeing an improvement already.

* * *

Three weeks later and Sheila had moved over to the boy's side for taijitsu practice, as the girls side was not as strong. Her competitive streak was rising and she wanted to see how she fared compared to them. She was faced off against Choji to begin with. The stocky student seemed to fight more like a sumo wrestler, but Sheila did not let that fool her as she knew he was strong and fairly fast.

"Here I come," the boy shouted, launching a weak punch. He should be able to knock her out and send her back to the girl's side fairly quickly.

So he was quite surprised when she countered his hit with a perfect block and then slammed two _really_ hard punches to his tensed abdomen. That was his cue to start taking her seriously. He managed to snag an arm after five brutal minutes of fight and got into a tug of war that they matched almost perfectly in strength, much to Miuzuki's and all of the boys' surprise.

Sheila finally broke the stalemate by hitting a nerve on Choji's arm, forcing him let go after he had half-tossed her to the edge. She dashed back in a flash, kicking his jaw hard enough to send him stumbling. She followed up with a hard shove, sending him tumbling and out of the ring.

Choji shook his head. "You're stronger than you look."

"That was really fun," she replied with a smile, looking quite like the scuffed-up tomboy she was. There were hints of deep beauty that she might grow into though, hidden under the grime.

"Okay. Sasuke and Naruto! You're up!"

This fight was much more straight-forward, even with the few tricks Naruto tried to use. Sheila frowned as she saw the sloppy stance that Naruto was using. It was actually worse than her form from a week ago. So why wasn't the teacher correcting it? She was distracted by the end of the fight, as the Uchiha knocked the blond silly. Most of the boys sent out good-natured jeering to the loser.

It was a half-hour later that Sheila ended up facing Naruto. She focused her attention closely and almost stumbled when she noticed something very, very _odd_. "Why do you smell of fire, death and... a fox?" she asked in confusion. She had only come across this sort of scent from her fellow band of Scions and a few of the monsters they had fought. That meant there was something supernatural about him.

"What are you talking about?" the blond boy demanded.

"Sheila! Quit asking stupid questions. You'll get in serious trouble," Mizuki yelled out from the sidelines as he frowned at the strange new girl. How had she picked that up?

After a few minutes, she had trounced the loud-mouthed boy, sending him skidding from a painful toss. "Sheesh, Naruto. Don't you watch and learn from everyone else?"

He started laughing nervously. "I'm not very good at that."

"Well, you probably had better try harder then." She shook her head and walked back to the line of watchers.

She cheered along with the boys (and Sakura and Ino) as the sparring progressed. Her final match of the day had been against Sasuke that had to be stopped by Mizuki after ten minutes, though it was obvious to everyone that Sheila had actually been over-matched and was fighting on the defensive. She gave him a smile as they headed back to class. "Next time I'll be better," she vowed.

That just caused him to frown in annoyance. He had to be better than a mere no-one and a girl. He stared at her with a frown as he planned how to increase his training.

* * *

The next five months passed very quickly. Sheila had become quite skilled in the 'basics' of a ninja. She had mastered the three chakra techniques; transformation, substitution and clone and had even worked on a few simple genjitsu and combinations. She was vying with Sasuke for top spot in taijitsu, much to his annoyance.

The rest of the girls had discovered something very unusual. Sasuke only payed attention to girls that challenged him, like Sheila. So for the last three months they had been frantically shoring up their ninja skills, much to the bemusement of Iruka and Sasuke. They had even stopped dieting when Sheila had mentioned that proper nutrition and exercise would keep any weight from being gained. Especially with chakra use.

Iruka walked into the class late, dragging a tied up Naruto behind him. "Just stay there," he ordered the student. "All right you kids! This is your last day here if you pass the final test."

That got them to all quiet down. Sheila hoped it wasn't the henge again. Naruto would probably use his weird version of henge, the 'sexy technique' and cause all the girls to clobber him. After taking roll call, he had individual students come into a back room.

The young scion looked over at the quiet (almost withdrawn) girl with pale eyes and short, dark hair. "So, Hinata, the Byakugan can see through basic walls right? What technique are they testing us on?"

"Ah... Byakugan!" she called out, activating her family bloodline. She stared for a moment then shook her head. "Only the clone technique?

"No way," Naruto exclaimed loudly. "That's my worst skill." He was starting to panic.

Sheila just shook her head. That was it? That did not seem an accurate test of their skills. When she was called in, she tried to not look bored.

"All right, Sheila. Make as many clones as you can," Iruka said with a smile. "The more you can make perfectly, the better your ranking will be." He did not want to tell her, but she was close to making rookie of the year.

"Really?" She looked around the cramped room. That should be about her limit. She went through the handsigns and a massive cloud of smoke appeared in the room.

The two chunin looked around in shock, as the room was _filled_ with the many forms of Sheila. Dozens were crammed in there and all called out, "How's that, teacher?"

Mizuki just chuckled. "I don't think I've ever heard anyone doing that many clones before. I can say that she's made the most. And all are perfect replicas." He stared at the girl in the middle who gave a cheeky grin.

"Here you go, Sheila. You are now a genin of the Leaf." Iruka held out the Leaf head-protector to the same girl in the center.

The Sheila right behind him reached out and plucked it from his hand. "Thanks."

She had been behind him? That meant she moved silently and perfectly, leaving a clone behind her. "You are welcome." He shared a bemused expression with his fellow examiner.

Ten minutes later, everyone who passed (which was just about everyone except Naruto) was out meeting their family. Excepting Naruto and Sheila. The girl shook her head at his depression, but really it was his own fault for not practicing hard. Everything else he passed on just marginally, so bombing such a basic skill would fail him.

Without a backward glance, she left to go home and practice some more on her own.

* * *

So she was quite surprised the next morning to see a slightly battered Naruto in one of the seats wearing a Leaf head-protector with his normal orange jumpsuit. "How did you pass?" she asked curiously of the other blond as she sat next to him, with Sasuke on the same table and row.

He gave a wide grin. "I learned a super-awesome technique and stopped the theft of a forbidden scroll. So Iruka passed me."

Ino and Sakura tromped into the room, shoving against each other shoulder to shoulder. "First!" the pink-haired girl declared. She moved over to their row. "Hey, Naruto, can I have that spot."

"Sakura, Sasuke's not going to talk to you anyways. You are just annoying him," Sheila said while rolling her eyes.

"You just want him for yourself," she countered angrily. She had lost her spot as the brightest female ninja to this strange girl. Even frantically practicing had only kept her ahead of Ami and her clique.

"No I don't-" she started to argue back.

"Pipe down! Everyone to their desks!" Iruka looked around at all the new genins as they settled down. "I'm very proud of you all. It's time for your assignments." He went on, assigning different teams. Ino, Sakura and Ami groaned as he announced finally Team 7. "Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki and Sheila."

That got Ino, Sakura and Ami to all glare at Sheila.

"What? Why do I have to be on a team with that jerk?" Naruto cried out as he jumped to his feet and slammed his hands down on his desk.

"Team assignments are final. People like you, who was the last passing person in the class are teamed with the likes of Sheila and Sasuke. She was class rookie, after all and Sasuke was barely behind her," Iruka explained.

Suddenly Sasuke had joined his fan-girls in glaring at Sheila.

They continued to get split up into three genin teams; two boys and a girl on most teams.

Iruka then looked at all the students with a smile on his face. "That's all we have for this morning. You can take off, but be sure to be back by one o'clock.

Naruto immediately took off after Sakura, a girl he had a severe crush on who turned him down. Sasuke then turned Saukra down flat and that decided for Sheila that she would not bother with offer to see about a team lunch to get to know them better.

After lunch, the entire class was picked up by their team leader within fifteen minutes except for Team 7. Iruka stayed in the classroom for another fifteen minutes, finalizing some paper work. After half an hour, Sheila had a coin in the palm of her hand, concentrating on spinning it in various ways with her chakra.

Naruto finally jumped to his feet and shouted, "That does it!" He ran over to the slate board and grabbed a dusty eraser and made a simple trap by placing it in the door.

Sheila and Sasuke just ignored him as he sat back down to wait for his trap to be sprung. Surprisingly, in just five more minutes, a silver-haired ninja wearing the flack-jacket of a jonin opened the door and had the eraser land on his head.

Sheila snickered at that as Naruto busted out laughing, almost falling out of his seat. Sasuske, for his part, could not believe such an elite ninja could actually be caught in such a simple trap.

The ninja's one eye stared at them all in a cool manner as dust floated around his masked head (his other eye was covered by an askew head protector.) "You three... For my first impression... I think I hate you all."

The scion of Athena raised an eyebrow at that. "Gee, way to build up your new team." Must not like kids, she decided.

"What? How dare you-" Naruto started to shout wildly.

"Everyone meet on the roof in five minutes." And then the silver-haired jonin vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Sheila bounded to the open window where she _thought_ she saw him flicker through. It appears she had a lot of training ahead of herself if she could not even see her new teacher move. She balanced on the edge of the window sill and then launched herself straight up, catching the under-side edge of the roof and flipping to the land with the precision of gymnastic, only two seconds behind the jonin.

Naruto and Sasuke showed up a minute later. The last Uchiha was glaring at her again while Naruto just looked puzzled at her.

"How did you jump so high?" the blond-haired boy demanded. "I wanna learn how to do that!"

"It takes a bit of chakra control you don't seem have," the jonin stated. "We might get to that later. First, I want introductions. Name, likes, dislikes and dreams."

"Do we get your name in return?" Sheila asked with an arched eyebrow. "I'm not even sure you are our new team leader."

"Why, how untrusting of you," he murmured as he almost seemed to smile. "But a smart question. I am Kakashi Hatake, jonin of the Leaf. I have a few likes and dislikes which we don't need to go into. As for my dreams, well those are my own."

"Well, at least we got a name. I'm Sheila Henderson. I am very driven to compete with my all and hate Titanspawn. I like to succeed at figuring out hard things. For my dream... I wish to eventually be able to compete with my mother on an even footing," the girl said finally. General but actually is the truth.

Naruto immediately piped up next. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I love ramen and hate the three minutes it takes to prepare. For my dream, I'm going to be the best Hokage ever!" he shouted out.

At the prodding look of the jonin, Sasuke finally spoke. "My likes and dislikes are private. As for my dream... I have a goal. To kill a certain man and rebuild my clan."

Interesting, Kakashi Hatake thought to himself. "Well, now that that is out of the way, we can move on to important things. Our first task as a team will be survival training tomorrow." He gave them a smile they could barely make out under his mask. "Just be aware, this has a sixty-six percent failure rate. If you fail, you will be sent back to the Academy."

"What!" Naruto screamed out. "No way am I going back after I earned this!"

Sheila just narrowed her eyes at him.

"That was just a test to see if you were worth trying to put on a team. Meet as six o'clock in the morning at training ground 12. Oh," he called out just before he disappeared, "don't eat anything or you'll throw up."

All that they had left to argue with was a swirl of leaves.

The young girl tilted her head at that. "Well, I'm going to have breakfast." That surprised both of the boys.

"But he said not to eat or we'll throw up." Naruto actually looked apprehensive at that.

Sasuke was just watching her warily.

"It's survival training. That usually means hunting or foraging in the wilderness, right? I'd rather start off full, even if I do throw up," she pointed out.

"That's a good point!" the blond-haired boy exclaimed.

"Hnn," Sasuke said as he started to walk off.

Naruto took that as his cue and ran off excitedly. Sheila just shook her head as she headed off to her own room at the orphanage. She had to finish moving out at the end of the week and find a new place to live. And she had a scroll detailing how to make sealing scrolls to review.

* * *

Sheila was sitting next to the monument at the training ground at dawn, reading another scroll. It was just a D-Rank ninjitsu, but she had been learning many of the 'basic' techniques. With a flicker of handsigns, she breathed out a stream of fire that traveled out three feet. According to the scroll, most ninja used this to start a smokeless fire. So essentially, it was a camping technique.

"That's pretty cool, Sheila," a certain blond demon container said as he walked into the glade while rubbing his eyes.

"So we're all here. Come on down, Sasuke," she called out as she checked her wristwatch as she stood up. She was wearing 'her' outfit, which was a short gi and short pants in black and white leaf patterns. She had several pouches on her legs and belt.

He landed on the ground from his shadowy spot in the trees. "You have something to say?" he asked almost in a challenging manner.

"Our leader is already fifteen minutes late, so I expect that he will probably be several hours late today. Probably a test of patience or something. And since I hate wasting time, I figure we can do some training. It is supposed to be a _team_ training exercise." When they did not look convinced. "A team can overcome tasks that individuals can't beat themselves. Like protecting a caravan while attacking the leader of the bandits. If it was just one person, he could only do one thing."

"That makes sense," Sasuke admitted slowly.

"So let's lay out some of our tricks. I've been learning genjitsu and fujinsitsu, but I've only go the basics. So I can do some sealing scrolls, a barrier and distractions," Sheila explained.

"I've learned this really cool technique called the Shaodw Clone! It makes solid clones!" Naruto crowed while pointing at himself with his thumb.

They both turned to look at Sasuke who almost glared at them back. "I have some Uchiha fire techniques," he finally admitted. "But Naruto is only going to hold us back."

"I am not, you bastard!" the other boy shouted right back.

"Actually, you might. Your taijitsu sucks." She held up a hand to cut off his protest. "We can work on that, but a solid clone that only knows your fighting isn't going to be that useful except for a distraction."

The blond-haired boy frowned, but nodded slowly. They had promised to help his fighting skills! "Well, I also have my really cool Sexy Technique."

"Do you really think that is going to work as more than a distraction _once_?" she asked in a cold tone. "That sort of thing sets back women's rights decades if not centuries."

"Uh? I don't get that." Naruto had the feeling she was talking about important things, but it didn't make any sense. "And it worked just fine on the Old Man."

"Hnn. Let's start with the basics. Naruto, let's spar!" Sheila fell into a one of her favorite stances.

* * *

That was where Kakashi found them hours later. Naruto was currently sparring with Sasuke and the dark-haired heir of the Uchiha was defeating the weaker and slower clones with precision.

"Interesting," Kakashi said as he appeared in a swirl of wind that picked up leaves from the ground. "Well, at least you three aren't a bunch of slackers that require someone to pamper you."

That got a glare from all three of them. All of the Naruto clones pointed their hands at him. "YOU'RE LATE!" they screamed.

"So that was a test?" the girl asked, studying him with narrowed eyes.

"I had to help an old woman cross the street and then there was this black cat that crossed my path. But that's all in the past," the jonin said inanely, totally ignoring her question. He suddenly held up two bells on strings. "Now to the real test to see if you are worthy of being genin. Get one of these bells and you pass. Fail and I'll tie you up to one of those posts and you won't get lunch." He actually set some lunch boxes on the ground next to the monument. "To get a bell, you will need to come at me with the intent to kill me."

"I'll get that bell for sure!" the demon container shouted excitedly.

"I've usually seen that the loudmouthed one is usually the biggest loser," the jonin noted in a gleeful tone as he set an alarm clock on the monument along with two lunches.

Naruto actually pulled out a kunai and moved to charge the jonin, only to find himself tripped on the ground. "Hey!"

"Naruto, this is a _team_ exercise. Don't go running off on your own," the girl noted as she hauled him back to his feet after tripping him.

Sasuke nodded slowly.

"Well, at least he had the right attitude. You have until noon. We start, now!"

Naruto started to charge forward as Sasuke vacated the field. He found himself tugged in a different direction. "Why do you keep doing that?" he asked in an annoyed tone as he was pulled out of the field.

"Because we need a plan. Jonin are supposed to be crazy skilled," she said over her shoulder. "Come on down, Sasuke."

"I can do this on my own," he grumbled from up on the tree. "I don't need you two slowing me down."

"Then you are being as big an idiot as Naruto."

"Hey!" they exclaimed.

Sheila sighed. "What did Kakashi say yesterday? He said we were doing team survival training and only one-third of the teams passed. Yet _today_ he shows up late after telling us to not eat. And he has us trying to get two bells. He's not telling the truth about something. If it was really only a one-third pass, he'd only have a single bell."

Sasuke frowned as he nodded. "So getting the two bells is a smokescreen. It's all about the team getting the bells."

"Sooo we need to try to fight him as a team. Which means we need to work together. That's why you dragged me out with you." Naruto suddenly grinned. "This will be just like a prank."

"Hmm. I believe with a little effort, Naruto could end up being very good at psychological warfare," Sheila noted casually, causing a feeling of worry to travel up Sasuke's back.

"What's that mean?" the blond-haired boy asked suspiciously.

* * *

Kakashi sighed as Naruto came out of the woods ten minutes later. "I thought she was smarter than this."

"I'm going to get that bell and become a ninja no matter what," the boy yelled out as he charged.

That was when a hail of kunai and shurikan came out of left, hemming Kakashi from two directions just as a massive fireball came from Sasuke as he appeared at the edge of the field. One quick substitution and he was out of the way next to a large, gnarled oak tree. Four kunai launched from traps at him as a primed exploding tag under him started to sizzle. In a blur, he disappeared again before the area blew up with greater than expected force.

"My my, you guys sure are violent," he replied casually. "But its time for a lesson. First, lets start with Taijitsu."

Sheila tried to drop in on him as Sasuke caught up. Naruto had made a whole bunch of clones and they were readying kunai and throwing stars. With both of the top taijitsu graduates, Kakashi had to use both hands to block their attacks while dodging the occasional weapon thrown at him. "This is almost teamwork. I'm surprised. You almost seem to understand."

"That this is a team test? And we pass and fail together?" Sheila asked with a grin.

"But you aren't going to get a bell at this rate," the jonin replied with a smug look, his one visible eye closed. "You still aren't trying to come at me with full killing intent." With one hand, he slapped open her two-handed guard and then kicked her three times faster than she could see.

No, not kicked. Lightly shoved so fast it _looked_ like a kick as she was hurtled across the field at a large tree. She spun through the air, both feet slapping heavily into it. With her corded legs under her, she leaped back eighty feet with a snap kick at his head.

"That was some leap. You've already started to use your chakra that much?" Kakashi asked in a bored tone.

Naruto was getting an awful lot of practice throwing weapons at the jonin even as the jonin had to dodge yet another fireball from Sasuke. Sasuke then charged in with Sheila, spinning through slices and stabs in unison.

"Activate seal!" four of Naruto's clones called out. Sheila had been working on a barrier seal, but this one sealed an area in paralyzation using four ofuda-type seals.

Sheila and Sasuke both froze and everyone discovered something about the barrier. It popped the shadow clones within it. All of the Naruto clones inside the barrier poofed. Unfortunately, so did the clone that Kakashi was using.

"My my, that was pretty cunning," Kakashi said from right behind the real Naruto.

"Uh oh," the demon container managed to say.

"But you should not have left your back open. One Thousand Years of Pain technique." One extremely painful jab in the butt and Naruto flew through the air to land in the water.

That was when the alarm started to ring on the clock that Kakashi had left on the monument.

"Oops. Looks like you ran out of time." In a flash, he had them all tied up to the log posts. He stared down at the sulky kids. "Well, congratulations. You passed."

"So why are we tied up?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

"Well, I had to tell you _some_ truth. So you all don't get to eat." He seemed to smile under his mask. "But we'll meet bright and early tomorrow at 8:00am and start taking missions."

"So you are leaving us tied up here? Let me guess, this is escape training." Sheila was full on glaring at the cyclopian team leader.

"My my, you really are a smart one!"

* * *

Kakashi appeared in front of the Hokage in a poof. The office was quite empty except its owner.

The old man looked up from his paperwork, looking every one of his years. "So you failed another team?"

"No, actually. I passed them. Technically, they passed within the first three minutes. They were very cute as they took off into the woods to prepare to fight me as a team. In fact, they actually defeated my shadow clone." The gray-haired jonin seemed adroitly pleased with that.

"Your clone, hmm? That's rather impressive. Give me your impression of them," the Hokage ordered as he started to light up his trusty pipe.

"I'm a little worried about Sasuke. He seems a bit fixated on killing his brother. Or that is who I am assuming he was speaking of. But he's young yet and he did mention rebuilding his clan. I just guess I'll have to bring up doing the rebuilding first is a good idea somehow."

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded, sucking in a large drag of tobacco. "You always start with your smallest problems first."

Kakashi nodded ruefully. "You know me too well. Naruto is a mess. Even his teammates can see that his skills have been stunted. I'm surprised to see, they look like they are taking steps to help with that. Even Sasuke is helping by fixing his taijitsu."

"And the girl-" the Hokage stated, noting worriedly that Kakashi felt she was the greater problem.

"-is a conundrum. I have a hard time believing that she only has six month training as a ninja, as she comes across solid genin already. Did you know that she's learning fujinitsu? Most chunin never bother studying more than the basics of sealing. And she can already make barriers."

"So that's what she was asking about." Hiruzen frowned, then took another drag on his pipe and held it within his lungs for a second. He blew out a ring. "She's trying to find a way home. I just didn't think she had the potential to advance quite so quickly."

"Find her way home? Her paperwork listed her as an orphan." The jonin's single eye was studying the leader of the village closely.

"She was orphaned by being summoned to these lands, hence why she was sent to the academy. It appears she is very determined to get back to her lands, which may not even be of this land."

"Space-time manipulation? She thinks big then." This was something even he had not really gone far into himself. In fact, the only real 'master' of that sort of seal had been the Fourth Hokage, his own teacher.

"Yes. Well, congratulations on your Team 7, Kakashi. It appears this year is very promising. Four teams passed their jonin leader's tests. And you finally passed a team. I expect great things from you all."

* * *

Sheila was about to blow a mental gasket. Kakashi had shown up three hours late the next morning, but she had actually expected that so had planned accordingly with a self-training session. Naruto had been quite enthused at that, as the girl had been more than willing to actually correct his flawed fighting style. Sasuke had not been thrilled, but could not argue against training up his backup on his team.

Then they had been introduced to D-Rank missions. Mowing lawns, babysitting and cleaning up public parks and streams were now explained. And this was only the first day.

"This... sucks," Sheila said as she glared at their team leader. "How many of these silly D-Rank missions do we have to do before we are allowed to do something meaningful?"

"Yeah!"Naruto interjected loudly. "Where's the bandits to fight? Or life and death struggles with enemy nins?"

"This is not getting me stronger," Sasuke stated coldly.

This was surprising to the older ninja. He hadn't expected them to reach this stage for a couple of months. "You aren't ready for real combat," he stated simply. "These exercises are vital to the formation of the team."

"Some of us have already been fighting. And you didn't answer my question. How many of these 'team building exercises' do we have to do before we actually start to do something worthwhile?" the girl demanded.

"That's for me to decide. Right now I'm revising my estimate upwards," the jonin declared. "You should head home and rest after the mission." With that, he disappeared from the bridge in a swirl of leaves.

"This sucks," the girl reiterated.

"I guess I'm going to get some ramen and then head home," Naruto said with a sigh. "You guys want to come along and grab a bite to eat?"

"I need to drop by Hiroshi's Weapon Emporium to drop off some explosive tags. He said he would buy them if they were of good enough quality," Sheila called out. "I want to show him my first tag and see what he thinks."

"You can make an explosive tag? I don't think I know anyone that actually makes them," the demon container noted in wide-eyed amazement.

"That might be worth learning," the last Uchiha noted. "Explosive tags can be expensive."

"I've never been able to buy one," Naruto admitted. "Can you show us?"

"It's taken me months to get this far, but I can give you a scroll of the basics. Storage sealing is where everyone starts," she admitted.

"Hiroshi's is on our way," Naruto exclaimed excitedly. "Come on."

The stop at the ninja supply shop was disappointing. The owner was impressed by the size of the explosion, but not her sealing work.

"You must have had to put ten times the chakra to get it to explode with normal force. So I'd put the quality as sub-par. And I can't sell that in my shop as I can't see how much chakra you put into each tag," the owner explained. He pulled one of his tags from a drawer. "See, this is one that a retired jonin sells. It is a lot smaller, more stable and made on better quality paper. You could wrap this on a kunai's handle and it becomes dangerous enough that a jonin has to take it seriously."

The three genin all nodded at that. "So more practice and to buy more expensive paper," Sheila noted aloud. "But you'll buy my storage scrolls?"

"Sure. These are pretty good. You kids look young for being genin for so long. Have you been selling to my competitor, Yuji?" he asked happily. He was taking a bit of advantage of them, but not too bad and it would teach them a lesson about trust.

"Whatcha talking about, old man? We just became genin today!" Naruto exclaimed loudly.

He looked at the kids, realizing that even though the girl was six inches taller than them, she still looked very young. "You all just graduated the academy? Well, I guess we'll be seeing a lot of you if you are this advanced. Most kids make chunin before they even start working on seals. It shows you are a good ninja if you have advanced skills like that," Hiroshi said in a bit of surprise.

"I'm so learning that," Naruto exclaimed.

Sasuke glared at the dead-last of the graduating class with dead-black eyes, but silently agreed. If he could master this, he would finally be moving beyond the shadow of his brother. And with a little luck be able to have an edge in his final battle with Itachi.

Naruto then headed out, dragging Sheila behind him to his favorite place to eat to ramen just down the street. "Hi, Ayami! Teuchi, two pork bowls for me."

"Who are your friends?" the young adult asked with a bright smile. Her father immediately set about making the new order.

"This is Sheila and the jerk is Sasuke. They are both on my team- Ouch!" Naruto cried out from where Sheila had slapped him on the back of the head.

"Don't insult your teammates. Our lives depend on each other. Or will when we start taking real missions." She gave him a hard glare. "Otherwise I won't teach you anything about sealing. A beef ramen with lots of veggies, please."

He looked back at her mule-ishly, but finally nodded. "Okay, no insulting him unless he insults me first."

"Sasuke? How about you?" she asked him intently.

"I won't insult him unless he does something stupid. I'll take a miso ramen." That was an easy promise to make, Sasuke thought. Naruto was always doing something stupid.

"That seems mostly fair. What do you think Naruto?" Sheila asked the boy on her other side.

"Do I get to insult him if he does something stupid then too?" he demanded.

"That seems fair, doesn't it, Sasuke?"

"Hnn."

Sheila then took a side-look over at Naruto. "So, Naruto, you never did answer that question from the Academy, Why do I smell fire, death and fox from you?"

Ayame dropped a pot with a massive clatter.

The demon container had lowered his head. He started to open his mouth, when Teuchi interrupted.

"There is a law. No one can talk about _that_ upon the promise of death by order of the Third Hokage. How can you smell that on him anyways?" the cook demanded suspiciously.

"I can discern supernatural entities with my nose. There are more of them than you would expect," she noted absently as she studied him. If those weren't scars, but some form of supernatural tell...

"Upon pain of death? What the hell, Naruto?" Sasuke demanded with a dark glare.

"Hey, this isn't my fault! I didn't even know until I graduated the academy!" he argued right back at the two of his teammates.

Sheila frowned as she leaned forward. She hated not knowing something. Though she had better be careful, this might be something that they considered espionage.

Sasuke was thinking similar thoughts. Suddenly the dead last of the class was a lot more mysterious than he had ever thought possible. Granted that wasn't exactly hard but still this whole incident made him curious.

* * *

"Genin Sheila Henderson, you are summoned to the Hokage's office _immediately._" The mask the member of ANBU was wearing was in the mask of a lion. He had appeared right behind her as she was walking out of her apartment she had finally moved into.

"Immediately, sir? May I send a message to my team why I will be late this morning?" she asked.

"No. If a message needs to be sent, it will come from the Hokage," Lion said coldly.

She nodded and then started to sprint down the street towards the Hokage's tower. She decided to really push things, suddenly accelerating and leaving the lion Anbu behind her as she channeled legend into her speed. She felt slightly reckless, even as she tried so hard to go even faster.

And with a snap, she accelerated _again._ She was a streaking blur as she zipped across town to the tower.

More ANBU on guard became alarmed as they saw the figure headed towards the main administration headquarters of the village. But none of them could match her movements, as it was as if it was a moment just below a body flicker. But a body flicker could not be extended to nearly that distance.

So they were quite surprised when the blur turned into a _genin_ that stopped at the door to ask for admittance from the chunin administrator at the front desk.

She sat outside the Hokage's office for ten minutes, reading a scroll when she heard his voice in her ear.

"Enter."

Stepping in, Sheila saw a _very_ unhappy looking Hiruzen Sarutobi. "Sir." She bowed at her waist.

The desk was cleared of all papers and his hands flat on the wood. "Sheila Henderson, I understand you have been asking questions that you should _not_ know to ask. I want you to tell me who told you about anything related to a fox about Naruto."

"No one told me anything. I can..." She paused her for a second. "I can scent supernatural entities and discern their allegiance. That's why I was so surprised a scenting such an unusual thing from Naruto. He's nothing like the death, fire or fox that I smell from him."

"You can _smell_ the Nine-Tail on him?" The Hokage's eyes were narrowed in anger and disbelief. "I'm not sure I can believe that." He was leaking intense and murderous feelings into the air.

"Well, if you had another being like that, we could test it to your satisfaction," she replied while licking her lips nervously. The Nine-Tailed Fox that nearly destroyed Konoha twelve years ago?

"Perhaps. Step outside for a minute," he ordered.

She followed his instruction and sat back on the bench outside, wondering just how much trouble she was in if she could not prove her ability. And then the sticky situation about _why_ she could actually smell the divine and damned if need be.

The Hokage's voice whispered in her ear again, "Enter."

Standing next to the Hokage was an imposing man, fully seven foot tall and wearing full samurai armor. The Hokage was looking at her from under his hat. "This is the man I will be testing you with. Prove to me your ability."

Sheila bent her legend to the task. She sniffed carefully, frowning as she only smelled balm, tobacco and ink. Then she smiled and turned to the 'Hokage' and sniffed again. "That was a neat trick, honorable Hokage. But you are the one that... smell of bananas and the cries of of the jungle?" What sort of entity was this?

The Hokage laughed and the poofed into the form of a monkey of some sort. "She got you there, Sarutobi."

The huge man also poofed into his real form. "Perhaps."

"You are a kami of the Monkeys?" she asked curiously. "Then you might know a way back to the Overworld!" She looked quite eager as she pronounced that.

"I am the Monkey King known as Enma," he said as he stood up from the Hokage's desk. "I am afraid you will find that the gates to the Overworld are not open. We are Terrestrial Kami with our own half-mythical lands. My lands are a hidden jungle but do not lead to the Overworld you speak of."

"Why do you want to get into the Overworld?" Hiruzen said as he slid back into his seat. While his voice and continence was not cold, it was still all business. In a sign that he was less worried about the meeting, he pulled out his pipe and started packing it with tobacco.

"If I can get into the Overworld, I can get to Olympus and then home," the young girl said eagerly. "I'd rather not go through the Underworld if I can help it."

Enma raised a monkey eyebrow that nearly disappeared into his Leaf head-protector. "And this Olympus will not have you slain for your presumption?" He crouched comfortably on the floor, only wrinkling his nose a little bit at his old friend lighting up his pipe. That name sounded familiar.

Hiruzen watched her emotions play across her face. Worry, then resignation and finally determination.

"My mother lives on Olympus, so I don't think I would have any problems," the young blonde-haired girl explained.

"Your mother _lives_ in the 'Overworld'? So you are not a normal girl at all, are you?" Suddenly things were starting to make sense.

"I'm her mortal daughter," she prevaricated carefully.

"But your mother is _not_ mortal is he?" Hiruzen sat back in his chair as she considered it. "The Nine-Tail's existence and the fact that it is sealed within Naruto is a secret, punishable by death. Your learning it due to your supernatural ability to scent the Nine-Tail was not planned." He actually chuckled at that. "Surprisingly, you don't dislike Naruto for his status, but for his actions. Why is that?"

"He's wasting his potential. And with that he's endangering our team. But he seems to be improving finally. We seem to be working out," she replied with a shrug.

"From my reports, it seems to be you pulling them both along. Keep up the good work, but don't tell anyone about the demon within Naruto. In fact, the only person you should ever talk to about it is either Kakashi, Naruto or myself. That is all." The Hokage put his hand on the desk and with a poof his massive piles of paperwork appeared.

Sheila bowed her head as she took off. Once she was outside the forbidding forest she let out a happy yell as she jumped straight up. As soon as her feet touched the ground again, she took off. Her 'normal' speed was still better than it had been and she could feel that she could now run at that insane speed from before. She pushed off the ground to leap up to a roof and then ran fast to the bridge to meet her team.

As she arrived, she discovered that she was not even more than five minutes late and the two boys were already sparring. She gave them a grin as she pulled out her training scrolls.

* * *

"Naruto, that isn't a weed!" Sheila shouted at him from across the garden. "Only pull up the weeds."

"But I can't tell which ones are which," he whined.

"These are going to be radishes. In this area, they should be the only plants," Sasuke explained as patiently as he could. It sounded waspish and angry.

"If you can do a row correctly, we'll let you use your shadow clones," the girl called out.

Kakashi chuckled at that while he continued to read his book. It appeared Sheila had a good head for managing spazzy kids like Naruto. That certainly made things easier on him. After a week, it appeared that Sasuke would only follow Sheila if he felt like it and antagonized Naruto just at about every opportunity though. Naruto would try to challenge him right back.

Strangely, neither yelled at Sheila. The jonin wondered why.

With the addition of the shadow clones, Naruto finished his section first. Then he was bored so he started reading a scroll.

"I need to learn how to do that," the girl said with a bit of envy.

"You probably don't have enough chakra," Kakashi said aloud. "You have to have an absurd amount to make as many clones as Naruto can."

"We won't know until we try. Hey, Naruto, it's a fair trade for me teaching you how to make storage seals, right?"

"We can take a small break. We'll finish the rest after lunch," the team leader called out. She was teaching them how to make storage seals?

"So it just uses that one seal, right? And it isn't a normal seal," the girl asked as they sat down to eat. "What does it feel like?"

"Well, it feels like pinching myself into the same, smaller parts," he explained and then took a big bite of his rice ball.

Sheila nodded as she seemed to be thinking. Then she made the unique handsign and with a poof, a very poor copy of herself appeared at her shoulder. The pale, shaking clone shivered and collapsed backwards to explode into smoke. "Hmm. Harder than I thought."

"It took me all night to figure it out, but now I think I'm really good at it." Naruto had a wide grin on his face, proud of doing something that the two best of the class could not.

Sheila nodded as she saw Sasuke make the same handsign and created a clone. It was actually more solid and functional than hers, but _he_ looked like death warmed over. He quickly cancelled that and seemed to recover slightly.

"Hey!" Naruto called out as he almost yelled in Sheila's ears. "I want something in return."

Sasuke was starting to open his mouth in counter-complaint, but stopped and considered it. "Fine. It's not like its your technique only. But fair is fair on our team. I can teach a fire technique or two." He'd show them some of the C-Ranks he had. Most chunins knew them anyways.

Sheila kept at it for their rest hour and at the end of the time, finally created one perfectly. "Great!" She hopped to her feet. "Here I go!" she called out while making the sign. Another eight clones appeared around here. She actually felt the drain this time.

Kakashi had been watching. He had known that Naruto had learned the forbidden technique from the scroll in just under three hours, something he had though was amazing. Now he had seen a girl figure it out from about half of the instructions and descriptions in an hour. The Hokage would definitely want to know. Even Sasuke looked like he was going to figure it out shortly, though it might take him a day or so.

With a swirl of wind and leaves, he reappeared. "All right, my cute team, it's time to get back to work."

Sasuke went back to his part of the field, furiously attacking the job in a methodical and cold way. He was going to master that ability if it killed himself.

* * *

It was early morning of their fourth week. Sheila was sitting at the bridge carefully inking a seal on a large scroll.

Naruto ran up and then looked over her shoulder. "That doesn't look like a storage scroll," he said. He was starting to get the hang of making those himself. He really enjoyed being able to haul more stuff for his pranks and traps without _looking_ like he was carting them around.

"It's a summoning scroll for myself," she replied as she finished up the last bit of writing. She put her hand upon the center of the circular seal and applied quite a bit of chakra. "It should be finished now. Okay, Naruto. I want you to channel _some_ of you chakra into this when I'm down at the other end of the bridge." She quickly hopped to her feet and ran to the far side of the bridge.

The boy nodded and then channeled some (too much) chakra into the seal. Sheila was suddenly standing in the center of the seal that was currently bursting into flame. "Naruto! I only said some chakra! Damn it, now I have to re-make it." She quickly started stamping out the fire.

And she had only started to convince Hiroshi to take her explosive tags! Large scrolls like this were expensive.

"You really expected Naruto do something that delicate with chakra?" Sasuke remarked as he landed from a long leap from the trees.

Sheila let out a sigh. "Right, looks like we have to add learning chakra control to your training, Naruto."

Seeing the the smoldering remains of the scroll on the bridge Naruto had to agree that was a good idea. "Heh. You might have a point."

With a poof of smoke and swirling leaves, Kakashi appeared. "My my, you three really are loud at times."

"Kakashi, teach me how to control my chakra!" Naruto shouted at their team leader.

Sasuke just grunted in annoyance. Like their leader would actually teach them-

"Sure. Since I'm on time today, lets start with climbing trees." He _seemed_ to be smiling under his mask, but it was hard to see. Only his one visible eye was winking at them.

"How does climbing a tree increase your chakra control?" Sheila asked in consternation.

"Well, you have to climb without your hands." Kakashi walked to the edge of the bridge and then casually walked up the side of a tree. "See? You have to focus your chakra to the soles of your feet and then attach them to the tree." With a sudden blur, he sent three kunai to land in front of each of them.

"How is this going to make us stronger?" Sasuke asked as he picked up the kunai.

"It's because we waste a lot of chakra, I believe. At least that's what I read. While chunin and jonin usually have more chakra than any genin (Naruto being a massive exception) they can use it much, much better than we can," Sheila explained.

"You had better getting a running start and jump," Kakashi ordered casually as he leaned against another tree at the edge of the path.

"Are you sure? I think that is going to be counter-intuitive to tree climbing," the girl asked as Naruto and Sasuke charged their own trees.

Naruto failed to stick to the tree at all and nearly fell on his head. Sasuke made three steps before the bark blew him off. With a graceful flip, he landed on his feet and was ready to try.

"I'm sure," Kakashi replied.

Sheila sighed and then charged her tree, much faster than Sasuke had. She dropped into a deep crouch and then leaped up fifty feet into the branches.

"Oh, that's what she was talking about," the jonin noted casually. That was three-quarters of the way up that particular tree. "I guess you have to do it the hard way and walk up the tree." He seemed to be giggling internally at that.

"I wanna learn how to jump like that!" the excitable demon container shouted excitedly.

"Climb the tree first," his teacher called out.

Landing back on the ground, Sheila started to walk up the tree, making it thirty feet before she lost her grip and fell lightly, leaving a slice at her 'new' top. Her second attempt had her making it all the way up to the top. Not having any better idea, she walked back down.

"Well now isn't that interesting. It looks like someone is well on their way to being Hokage, but not the loudmouth of the group. And the girl appears to be much stronger than the last Uchiha, too," Kakashi said casually, riling them both up. "Sheila, keep practicing until you get tired." He wanted to see how her stamina held out.

Both of the boys immediately started working twice as hard. Sheila started to power-walk up and down the tree. To make it harder, she started to walk on her toes, much to Kakashi's consternation.

At about noon time, he stopped them. "All right, you three. Grab lunch and then meet up with me at the Hokage Tower to sign up for a mission."

* * *

"The library is closing, miss. Doesn't your team do any training or missions?" the chunin at the academy asked. He was the main librarian where genin and academy students could study.

"I think we were doing both today." She bowed at her waist. With a poof, the shadow clone dispersed herself, shocking the chunin.

Out in the forest where Team 7 was currently hunting down a cat name Tora, Sheila winced, but then smiled. That clone had learned a lot of interesting things from those history books. Once she had figured out that she could learn what her clones did, she multiplied herself almost every chance.

Most of the weapon shops were a bit surprised at her selling storage scrolls and explosive notes. She was even able to buy some more rare scrolls in sealing and was well on her way to having figured out the basic summoning technique.

"Target sighted near the oak next to a boulder," Sasuke called out from six hundred feet to her left using the radio. "I am moving to encircle it."

"Moving to support," Naruto called out gleefully. "I am in position."

"I am also in position," Sheila called out as she ran through the trees nearly in silence.

"Sheila, make the capture," Kakashi called out.

She almost exploded off the ground in a low, flat leap and then snagged the cat as she passed by to stuff it into a net bag. "And confirmed capture. Has the red-ribbon and everything."

"Good job!" their jonin leader called out as he appeared next to them. "Let's head back to the hokage tower."

Ten minutes later, they handed off the cat to the Fire Lord's wife, causing all of them pity the poor animal as it struggled fitfully.

"Very good, Team 7. Are you ready for another mission?" the Hokage said at his desk. Piles of scrolls were laid out in four rows.

"Kakashi, are we ready for a C-Rank mission?" Sheila asked politely. Naruto was suddenly grinning like a loon.

The jonin looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. He turned to the assignment desk. "Requesting a C-Rank mission for Team 7."

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded slowly, even as the chunin next to him gaped.

"They can't be ready," Iruka countered.

"They are my squad and I feel they are ready," Kakashi said lazily.

"Very well. We have a caravan guard duty. It's pretty unlikely that you will be attacked, but he's worried. He says every time he goes without guards, he ends up being robbed." The Hokage made a hand signal and another chunin escorted in a big, tall and muscular looking man in a merchant's outfit. His hat seemed to cover his baldness, but he did not seem that old. "Ujimo, this is the team I have selected."

"I really don't care. Whenever I hire one of your teams, I don't get attacked. So that works," the merchant said.

"Every time, sir? Once or twice could be coincidence, but more is enemy action. Someone either has a spy in your men or watches you closely as you leave." Sheila seemed to be in deep thought.

Sarutobi smiled at that. He had noted that also, but it was not his job to _do_ missions for his ninja. "Do you have a suggestion?"

Kakashi was looking at the girl while facing the Ujimo. "So you have an idea?"

"I do. Honorable patron, may I suggest that you leave here pretending to be very angry that you were not able to get a team that met your needs? Then we can show up in the morning as a family that wants to travel with you. How far are we travelling?" she asked finally.

"To the Land of Rivers where I'll be stopping at multiple villages to sell pots. I always get attacked after leaving the heartland, but I've managed to break even. They seem to just want my coin."

"Really?" she asked curiously, thinking even harder than before.

"I think her plan is quite good. Hokage, may I drop off the paperwork to the front gate for a covert mission?" their jonin asked.

* * *

The morning was a bit foggy as Ujimo's caravan headed out on the third day from their camping spot. The addition of a family moving to the Land of Rivers was noted as a bit odd, but the father and mother seemed boring enough. The father seemed more interested in reading his book, so left his wife to his two daughters and one boy.

Sheila had one of her clones transformed into the mother and then strong-armed Naruto into transforming into a younger girl.

"I don't see why Sasuke couldn't have done this," the faux-girl complained. They were all sitting in the back of their wagon, which was the last on in the line. His female form currently had dark hair to match the 'rest' of the family.

"Because you have more practice with pretending to be a girl, even if you keep trying to sexify it up," the real girl noted.

That was when Kakashi stepped in, still transformed into an slightly tubby 'father' of three. "We will be stopping for lunch soon. But I want you to watch out for this area, as its a favored ambush spot." He had used it himself several times.

Ujimo was just raising his hand to signal a stop when armed men appeared from the bushes. "Damn it!" He had a sudden bout of real hope though, as this time he actually had ninja to fight them off.

The bandits were just starting to ransack the first wagon when a shrill whistle from Kakashi sounded out. All three genin shouted out as they formed the the strange handsign of a cross and created clones. Naruto made two dozen, Sheila made ten and Sasuke made just two.

The bandits suddenly found themselves outmatched and outnumbered. Ujimo just stared in shock as the too-young looking ninja fought with skill against the untrained men with cudgels and swords. In a matter of moments, all the bandits had been captured.

Five minutes later, Kakashi wandered into camp carrying the leader of the bandits (who had stayed at the back) and one of Ujimo's subordinates. "It seems these two were talking about hoping this would be the last time they would have to rob you. So I think there is another reason behind this subterfuge than just money."

The merchant nodded. "Yes, there probably is. My father thinks that increasing our family's wealth through being a merchant is beneath me. He thinks I should marry into a noble family with what wealth he has. That life is not for me." He seemed to sigh and deflate a bit. "Take them back to Konoha, but ask for leniency. This was more trick than injury."

"We can do that."

"That was... fun but weird," Naruto said as he tried to wrap his head around why these bandit attacks were happening.

"Family business _and _business. Sounds like his father really wants him to quit leading these caravans," Sheila noted.

* * *

Team 7 was eating at a little eatery-stall that served tempura. They had each agreed to let each other pick a place to eat, rather than one place each time. Naruto still usually picked Ichiruka Ramen, but with Sheila and Sasuke picking other places, he was starting to learn to appreciate other foods. Sasuke really seemed to like spicy food and avoided anything that was just sweet.

"Sasuke? What are you doing here?" a girl with hair that looked almost pink. Sakura Haruno looked quite happy all of a sudden. She quickly slid into place next to her crush.

"Eating," Sasuke remarked in a 'now leave me alone to do so in peace' tone.

"We're eating here," Ami Yojimo called out. She was another graduate from their same class in the Academy.

Omo Hajimi, the last member of their Team 11, sighed. "Still with the fan girls, Sasuke?"

That got him a glare from the Last Uchiha. He had never considered Sheila a fangirl.

"And I thought this was going to be a boring bonding session," Inoichi Yamanaka said with a laugh before he turned to the short-order cook. "I'll take your Number 2."

"Hey Sakura-chan," Naruto said happily to his crush. "I've been learning taijitsu and seals!"

"And he is actually becoming tolerable at them," Sasuke remarked. "His biggest challenge is picking something other than ramen every time we let him choose."

"But... it's ramen," Naruto declared. "And Ichiraku is really good ramen."

"I would kill for a double cheese-burger and fries," Sheila said in a huffy voice. When everyone looked at her, she glared back. "It's a type of food from my home nation."

"Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting you aren't originally from Konoha!" the blond-haired boy exclaimed loudly.

"Where are you from?" Inoichi asked from the end of the stall.

_"The United States of America,"_ she said in English. "I can't even find it on any of the maps in the library. So it must be really far away."

"America? That sounds familiar," the jonin noted as she looked off into nothing, trying to recall what he had almost remembered. "I'm sure I'll remember it eventually."

Sheila gave him a look of consternation, but nodded. "I would appreciate that." Her attention was pulled back to Naruto.

"Come on, let me show you what I can do," he whined to Sakura. "It's really cool."

"Naruto, you wouldn't know cool if it bit you," the dark-haired genin Ami noted with a roll of her eyes.

He ignored her as he started putting a seal on the paper. In just two minutes, he had the four inch by eight inch paper covered correctly in inked glyphs. "I can make explosive tags!" He grinned widely and then channeled.

The paper was snatched from his hands and instantly wrapped around a kunai that was tossed so quickly into the air that everyone could barely blink. "Naruto!" Sheila nearly screamed at him. "Your chakra control isn't-"

That was when the exploding tag exploded with the force of ten exploding tags.

"-that great yet!" she finished.

"Those _could_ be useful, but I take it I couldn't be sure how powerful the exploding tag could be, could I? Oh, Naruto, try to _not_ explode my team," Inoichi drawled out casually. "My daughter would be very upset at the death of her father and her best friend."

"Dang it. I need to do more tree walking," the boy grumbled even as Sakura shot the jonin a surprised look.

"At least it did not catch on fire while you were making it," Sheila noted with a grin as she saw Sasuke slink off unnoticed by everyone but the jonin and herself.

"Sheila's much better at making seals than me," Naruto said to everyone as he almost hopped up and down in excitement. "What are you working now, Sheila?"

She rolled her eyes, but the other genin were actually interested. "Fine." She reached into her standard ninja leg-pouch and pulled out a scroll. She went across the street and placed it on the counter. "Please hold onto this for a second."

Inoichi raised an eyebrow as she came back across the street. His jaw dropped as she made a handsign...

...and appeared back across the street to pick up her scroll in a blink. All the genin blinked, then cheered.

"That's cool, Sheila!" Naruto cheered out.

The jonin just stared at her. "You did _not_ just use an S-Rank technique that has been lost."

Sheila trotted back over with her scroll. "No, I just tried to figure out the best way to recreate it. It's _really_ complicated and I can't seem to do it over two hundred feet yet."

Naruto, Sakura, Ami and Omo suddenly found themselves being given a very stern look. "Go home and do not speak to anyone about this. This is now at least an A-Rank secret," Inoichi ordered. "As for you, young lady, you are coming with me."

Ten minutes later, Sheila found herself standing in the Hokage's office. She suppressed the desire to sigh.

The Hokage looked over at the blond-haired jonin. "Jonin Yamanaka, what can I do for you?"

"It appears this genin has been dabbling in space-time jitsu and looks to have recreated the Fourth's S-Rank, the Flying Thunder God technique," Inoichi explained as he gave the Hokage a bow.

"I knew you were working on space-time techniques, but I didn't think you would be able to recreate that technique. The Fourth Hokage guarded the secret of that jealously." Sarutobia drummed his old and aged hands upon the desk. "How did you figure that out?"

"You have to store yourself before you are summoned to your targeted array," she explained happily. "My three point triagram seal doesn't seem to be that effective with range, so I might have to work on it. I think I'll need to get much better at it to try and get home."

Hiruzen chuckled at that. It appeared she was still thinking she could get home. "I don't know how much that will help you, but you have surprised me again. I would not use that recklessly, that technique. If the Stone Ninja saw you, they would think you were the daughter of the Fourth."

"She isn't? That was my first thought," the mental-interrogation specialist jonin asked in surprise. "I know I'm a little worried that my Ino might be killed just for having blonde hair if she ever goes anywhere near the Land of Stone."

The Third Hokage nodded sadly. "They aren't quite that likely to just attack random blonds from Konoha, but it probably wouldn't take much of an excuse to start a fight either."

"I didn't realize he had the same hair color I had. Is that going to be a problem?" she asked the leader.

"No. In fact, please perfect your technique as quickly as possible. I may even ask you to demonstrate it to give the Rock a bit of a a pause. The Fourth Hokage almost ended the war against them seemingly single-handedly and his reputation was fearsome. If they think you are becoming a new Yellow Flash of Konoha... they may reconsider things." Hiruzen chuckled at that. From what he had heard and seen from Team 7, they were almost a shoo in for the chunin exam in just six weeks.

"Really? I'll do my best!" She was positively beaming now.

* * *

"Another C-Rank mission, Kakashi? I suppose I can accommodate that," the Third Hokage said two days later in the mission office. "I just happen to have a gentleman from the Land of Waves who needs an escort and protection against some local thugs." He made a hand signal and a sturdy old man appeared. "This is Tazuna, a bridge builder who came all the way to Konoha to hire himself a team."

"This is my team? They don't look that reliable. Is that kid even old enough to be a ninja?" At least the tall girl was probably a year or two older.

"I don't think its very wise to insult the people you are hiring to protect you, honorable client," Sheila noted. Sasuke and Naruto simply glared.

Kakashi chuckled at that. "No worries. They are actually quite skilled already and I am an elite, a jonin of the Hidden Leaf. There shouldn't be any problems."

"Hmmph. Fine." He took a swig of his clay mug that seemed to be full of cheap sake.

"You three, I want you to meet at the main gate packed for an extended trip in one hour," he ordered before he disappeared in a swirl of wind and leaves.

"See you guys!" Sheila told her teammates before activating her new six point double triagram seal in her apartment, disappearing instantly to it. "Bingo! That worked a lot better. Now I have to figure out how to put them on thrown weapons like the Fourth Hokage used."

The real trick was that one half of the seals were actually on herself. It sort of worked like a transmitter and receiver. The seals on her body folded her space to put her in 'storage' but then instantly sent her to her target sea to remove her from 'storage'. It was quite tricky and she had not figured out how to make the target seals smaller quite yet, but was working on it.

She was down at the main gate in just minutes. The girl nodded her head to the chunin guards at the gate. "My team has another C-Rank mission, so they'll be along shortly."

"Okay then. So you are going to hang out?" the first one asked.

She just nodded.

Sasuke was the first to arrive, nodding to her. He only had a few scrolls secreted upon his person. Storage scrolls made travel light and fast. He noted that she had added a short sword of unfamiliar design at her belt.

Naruto showed up half an hour later, several scrolls at his waist, but still with a backpack. "Hah! I guess I was too slow."

When Tazuna arrived, Kakashi flickered up to them. "Are we all ready, my cute team?"

They all nodded as Naruto cheered about leaving on another exciting trip. "Wahoo!"

The chunin guards checked them out, but it was relatively easy to leave. Sheila frowned at that, as she could be walking out of here with a lot of secrets in her storage scrolls.

It was quite warm as they traveled down the road, turning off to the northwest trade route. It did not take long for the trees to thin a bit. Sheila was itching to pull out a scroll and continue studying fujinitsu or ninjitsu of some sort, but squashed that as she kept a lookout. She decided to work on altering her appearance, as she could almost feel her hair changing with effort.

So when she saw a puddle three hours later far down the path that should not be there, she click-clucked a warning. She could almost see the surface wavering under her more than human insight. It was a genjitsu hiding something. She focused on it intently and could finally see the two figures hiding crouched in the illusion.

Kakashi actually looked up from his book, but then with a shake of his head went back to reading.

Even Naruto had noticed the puddle of water now that everyone (but Tazuna) was more alert as they thought they might be attacked. So when two missing ninja leaped out of the water and charged Kakashi, they were surprised when they had to break off their attack from all the kunai that were sent at them by the trio of genin.

The jonin sighed to himself. He had really wanted to see who these two jokers were going to attack, but his genin had interrupted them from 'disposing' him.

Sheila created two quick shadow clones to leave with the bridge builder. "We should-"

Kakshi suddenly clotheslined both chunin with the scratched through head-protectors, instantly ending the fight. "What was that?"

"-stay right here guarding our client," she finished lamely. All three of her looked frustrated.

"Wow, that was awesome, Kakashi!" Naruto shouted out.

"You guys were pretty good," he admitted.

That got Sasuke and Naruto to both stand tall and share a look while Sheila was studying the missing ninja. "I thought that C-Rank missions were not supposed to have ninja combatants," she asked curiously. She saw Tazuna tense up beside her.

"No, they shouldn't. It's hard to say why they were here. They might have been here for the client and he did not know, they might have been sent to assassinate myself and have been disavowed by their hidden village or they might have been here to kill me and kidnap Sasuke. Too many variables," the jonin admitted.

"Why would they want to kidnap Sasuke? Is it because he's the last Uchiha?" the demon container asked in simple confusion.

"Yes, and his Sharingan. Sasuke has not developed it yet, but they would hope to steal his eye technique. The Sharingan and Byakugan are very coveted by our enemies." Kakashi had noted the bridge builder's nervousness. "You don't have anything to add, do you Tazuna?"

"I knew Gato was putting pressure on me and might attack, but I didn't realize he would sink to hiring ninja like this. I mean, I knew he was dangerous. He's already killed my son-in-law to stop my bridge. But it has to be completed before he totally crushes my people." The old man was sweating profusely. "I'd be dead if I'd known he could hire ninja. There's no way the Land of Waves could afford to pay for a B-Rank mission. I mean, my poor daughter and grandson could do without me, I'm sure!"

"Gato the richest man in the world? His being a trading magnate means he could hire some very scary people," the jonin noted as he understood what Tazuna had done. He could not really blame him for understating it. Kakashi then turned to his three genin. "From here on out, it could become very dangerous."

"We're ninja. It's dangerous by definition," Sheila noted. "And this Gato sounds like he's not good at all."

"Yah! We aren't going to be coddled," Naruto shouted. "I wanna show everyone how much I've improved."

"Sounds like a good challenge," the final genin noted with a dark gleam in his eyes.

"Good! Now that its been decided, we'll have to figure out a future payment plan for this B-Rank mission," Kakashi told the old man. "I'm sure that the Hokage would be willing to take yearly payments." Try to weasel out of that, the ninja thought, and you still get to pay. If he had just thrown them on their mercy, he might have ignored the trick.

* * *

The low lying skiff was being rowed through the fog that lay around them all just two days later. Tazuna, Kakashi and his genin were in the middle while one of Tazuna's friends was guiding them through the waters.

Naruto was absolutely shocked. "Wow, that's really amazing."

"Hmm. A stone-arch bridge. It must be pretty shallow here," Sheila noted. She was not nearly as impressed as everyone else.

"This will be the most amazing bridge in the world, just you wait," Tazuna exclaimed in glee.

"Really? It isn't that impressive. It's not even a steel suspension bridge." It probably would have been easier to just make a raised stone piling.

The old man looked affronted. "There's not enough metal in the world to make a bridge that big. And why would you want it to be a suspension bridge?"

"So ships can sail under it, of course. Though I'm curious as to why you have a motor engine. That's the most high tech engine I've seen in the Elemental Nations," she said as she looked over at the sailor.

"Only for emergency use when you might be dragged out to sea. It and its fuel come from across the Amber Sea from the country Alkora. But we need to be quiet now if we are going to sneak into the Land of Waves."

Sheila was really wondering if they were being that literal or if her power to understand languages was playing a prank on her. She was pretty sure it was just being very literal. Most of the nations were only a few centuries old.

They ghosted past the uncompleted bridge and through a secret tunnel covered in hanging vines that led into a series of channels and lakes.

"This is as far as I can go," the sailor called out. "Good luck, my old friend."

Tazuna nodded gravely as he shook hands.

The group skirted the village, using an old path to head to his home. Sheila was getting more nervous as they went along. "I think we are being followed," she finally called out.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. He hadn't detected anything. "Are you sure?"

"They are quiet, but not quite silent enough. I think there are two of them," she admitted as she listened with her acute ears.

"Here's what we are going to do," Kakashi ordered as he made a cross-sign.

* * *

Five minutes later, Kakashi yelled out, "Duck!" even as he grabbed Tazuna and dragged him before a whirling blade could decapitate them. All the genin hit the grass but were back on their feet instantly.

"He's going for his sword," Sheila called out. The three genin then sent a wave of kunai with exploding tags towards the huge zanbuto blade that was embedded in a tree horizontally. "Can anyone see the second target?"

Naruto called out, "No, I don't see his backup."

"No second contact," Sasuke called out as he scanned around. He made a hand-seal, making regular illusion clones. The other two quickly followed his lead and had the bridge-builder surrounded.

The bare-chested ninja did not even pause as he ripped his huge sword out of the tree and flickered away from the explosions that shredded the tree. "Your genin don't suck," he admitted as he landed on the water of a nearby lake as if it were fully solid.

"Zabuza Mamoichi; Demon of the Mists," Kakashi called out as he moved his head-protector up and off from covering his eye, revealing a swirling red eye with unusual pupils. "He is beyond you guys, so leave him to me."

From the shadows of a tree, a masked figure with a stylized pattern of water on it seemed to be watching the fight closely. The hunter ninja suddenly spun around, sending a senbon through a hidden shadow clone that had been creeping up behind him. The masked figure realized that his location was compromised, so started to move to different cover.

The missing water ninja had finished blanketing the area in fog and was trying to break their will with his 'killing' comments. "-heart, throat... these are all the ways I can kill silently."

His killing intent washed over them, almost freezing up the genin from his pure malevolence. All three genin were trembling horribly, frozen in fear. Tazuna looked ready to faint.

"Don't worry, I won't let him hurt you," Kakashi called out.

"He's right. Kakashi can defend us from him. He's throwing his voice with a technique," Sheila called out. "It's a trick." She released a burst of legend, bolstering their valor and will to all of her allies. Her form wavered as the shadow clone nearly dispersed as it used up most of its chakra to empower the embodiment of war.

That was when Zabuza appeared in the center of their formation, sword held high to cleave the old man in twain. He never got a chance to attack as Kakashi, their own jonin, appeared and swept him out of the area with a quick throw. They went back and forth for three quick attacks before Kakshi ended up stabbing him in the stomach.

The wound bled water though, before the clone collapsed into a puddle. Another Zabuza had appeared behind Kakashi, chopping the Leaf jonin in half. Kakashi's clone also exploded into water.

"He managed to copy my water clone?" the missing ninja asked in frustration. "That eye is really cheap."

"And you are dead-?" another Kakashi was starting to say as he stabbed that Zabuza before he had to duck another attack from behind.

"That's an awful lot of clones," Sheila noted as the two jonin went at it in a no-holds barred fight using kunai, swords and tricks.

Kakashi was barely able to block a kick, but it still sent him into the water. That was the trap that Zabuza had been waiting to trigger, entombing the Leaf Ninja into a bubble of water. With his free hand, he set down his greatsword and then with one hand, created yet another clone.

"One-handed seals? That is absolutely amazing," Sheila shouted out gleefully.

"I'd be more worried about the fact that I'm going to kill you and your client," Zabuza said through his mask, his eyebrowless features quite creepy looking. The clone picked up the sword and was walking towards them.

"Shadow clone technique!" Naruto shouted out, creating dozens of clones that then charged the water ninja.

"Everyone! Fight until you can not! You have to save the client," Kakashi called out.

The hunter ninja was still watching the fight avidly, but had a strong sense of foreboding. This situation had hidden depths.

"Uzumaki human wave... EXPLOSION!" the horde of the blond-haired demon containers ninja shouted as they surrounded the water clone and then set off their explosive tags they were carrying just before the clone could kill them with a sweep of the sword.

"Heh. Your kids are pretty good, Copy-Cat," Zabuza was starting to say when all of the other blonde-haired ninja suddenly started launching kunai at him. They had explosive tags and Sheila timed them to explode before they could splash into the water.

"I take it back, your genin are _crazy_. And coming from me, that says something," Zabuza said, bleeding and smoking from over fifty feet away on the water.

And then, with a poof of smoke, all of the ninja from Konoha and their client disappeared. Zabuza's eyes widened as he started to scout around for ten minutes.

"Sir, are you discovering what trick they used?" the hunter ninja asked from a tree before it removed his mask.

"Just clones, Haku. It appears they knew they were walking into an ambush. They set it off to learn about us. I'm going to be out of it for a few days. It appears those kids like explosives too much." He was a mass of bruises and burns. "These are going to a bit to recover."

"Do you think you can beat that Copy-Cat Ninja?" the effeminate ninja asked his master.

"I don't know. I never faced his real strength. But those kids aren't normal, they knew exactly how to negate my clone."

* * *

Team 7 was at Tazuna's house after the fight. Kakashi was quite pleased, as they now had a good idea on how Zabuza fought. They had talked it out and they were going to be traveling with the bridge-builder to his work and back. But for now, they were going to eat and relax for a bit.

Sheila was sitting at the dinner table making hand-signs with one hand as her other hand was scribbling notes on a scroll. She then traded hands and went through the entire same series of signs in reverse.

Tsunami looked over from her kitchen where she was making supper. "Um, Mr. Hatake, is that safe?"

Her young son was watching from the doorway, sullen and angry as he glared at the ninja.

"Well, she hasn't blown up anything yet, so I assume so. It appears she thinks that one-handed seals are incredible for some reason. They are pretty hard to do and she _has_ both hands."

"Bloodline limits," she said with a wide smile. "Why can't they be duplicated by most people?"

"Because they require molding two elements at the same time, which can't be done naturally," Sasuke said cautiously. He had been tempted to be smug in his knowledge, but Sheila had a way of overturning what he knew.

"Exactly! So if you can do two elemental techniques at the same time, then you could duplicate bloodlines." She suddenly looked up at Kakashi. "Do you know the handsigns for any bloodlines of multiple elements?"

The jonin raised his one visible eyebrow at that. "I do know one, which is why I know that it requires a bloodline to use." He seemed to chuckle. "You don't think you are the first one that has come up with a foolproof way to duplicate a bloodline, do you?"

"Well, I'd still like to try, please."

"Very well. This is Wood Technique: Tree Growth." Kakashi went through ten signs, noting in surprise that Sheila was writing them down upon her note paper.

Naruto had his arms crossed and was looking at Kakashi in confusion. "Hey, Wood Release was the First Hokage's power. How do you know what it looks like?"

The last member of their team frowned, but then nodded his dark-haired head. "Naruto is right. The First Hokage was the last user of Wood and he died before you were born." Sasuke's coal-black eyes were watching the jonin closely.

"Hmm? What did you say?" Kakashi asked as he looked up from his smutty novella. The genin got the idea quickly, dropping the question.

"And its supposed to grow a tree, hmm? I'm going outside, okay?" Sheila was up and on her feet instantly, followed by the other two genin.

"She's being stupid," the very young child called out from the doorway. "You are all going to die anyways. Gato is too strong."

Sheila gnashed her teeth at that, but stopped herself from going back. The young brat was dealing with the death of his father from only a month ago. "Okay. Here I go," she called out. First she did a set of handsigns with one hand, making a mound of mud. Then she did her other hand, making a swirl of water that sent the mud flying.

Her attempt at both at the same time just made the mud explode.

"Hahaha!" Naruto shouted in laughter. "That's cool!"

"So maybe it is impossible," the last Uchiha said as he looked at the mess Sheila had created.

"What? You only ever succeed and never fail? You aren't that perfect," Naruto shot back at Sasuke.

"No, it was only my first attempt. Let me break up the pattern and how it meshes." She went through a nearly identical set, which sent up a spiral of mud that collapsed in on itself. "This might take a while."

* * *

Kakashi stepped out of the house four hours later. "Ah, there is my cute little team! It's time for supper and then we will be doing guard duty tonight."

"Ah, and Sheila was starting to get it." Naruto was looking down at the a very small, single bud that was sitting in the middle of the mud.

All three genin where totally covered in mud but even Sasuke looked a bit pleased.

"She _is_?" Kakashi moved over to examine it. "Okay, do it again." He uncovered his Sharingan eye, much to Sasuke's discomfort.

Sheila went through a strange set of double-seals, her fingers fluttering in a hesitant pattern as she fed the technique a lot of power. And a short sprout poked out of the ground all of four inches.

Their jonin actually whistled at that. "So maybe not as impossible as I thought." He went through the exact same series of double-seals that Sheila had and had a small branch that grew out of the ground with the creak of bending wood.

"Hey, how can you do it so much better than Sheila?" the hyper-active member of their group yelled out in frustration.

"I can control my chakra much better than she can. After all, she's only mastered tree-walking," he replied with what appeared to be a grin with both eyes. "I need to work a lot at this, but this has real promise. Sasuke, do you know if you have access to your family's scrolls? They had been keeping scrolls that had the hand-signs for all the bloodlines they had run into."

"I can do more than any previous Uchiha," Sasuke realized. "I can exceed my brother for sure."

Sheila looked over at Naruto for a second with a side-long glance. "Kakashi, teach me how to control my chakra better!" she called out in a faux-Naruto voice.

"Certainly, but not tonight. Tonight we are cleaning you up and then resting so we can guard Tazuna. That's our job." Kakashi covered up his Sharingan. He had to struggle to not laugh out loud at her expression.

And he had been worried about getting a useless lovestruck girl.

* * *

The workers were busy extending bridge to the mainland from the islands of the Land of Waves. Only three more pilings were being set down in the waters while workers laid down the stone for arches and columns. It was on the scaffold that ran around the latest pillar that Kakashi had taken his students. The water was lapping just six inches below them.

"Now, to improve your chakra control even more, we are going to learn to how to walk on water. Now, does everyone know how to swim?" the jonin asked them.

They all nodded.

"This builds on pushing and controlling your chakra down to your feet. Which, as you remember, is the hardest part of the body to manipulate chakra. Don't tire yourself out too much," he ordered before he flickered away back to the bridge to guard Tazuna.

"All right. Time to learn this as quickly as possible." Sheila made the special hand-sign for the shadow clone technique and created an even dozen. They all carefully stepped on the water, instantly sinking up to their waist. They hopped back out of the water and tried again.

Naruto and Sasuke both gave each other a very competitive look and then made their own clones. A swarm of orange had taken over the whole platform, pushing everyone else off.

"Naruto! Quit hogging up the training area!" Sheila called out from the water, looking very much like a blonde, drenched rat.

Kakashi valiantly tried to ignore his loud team.

* * *

It was four days later that that Sheila smelled blood in the mist on the way to the bridge. "Kakashi, there are wounded up ahead," she called out softly. A fog had enshrouded everything, limiting their sight.

"The protection of our client is of most importance," he reminded her. "Evacuate him to safety."

Sheila created a shadow clone and handed it a special scroll from her back, then disappeared in a poof after a moment's concentration and the handsign to activate the Flying Thundergod technique. Five seconds later, Tazuna disappeared. "He's in Konoha right now with his family."

Naruto was grinning. "Can't kill him if he isn't here." That had been a suggestion of his own, even if he could not make a summoning scroll of that quality yet. Convincing Tazuna to donate the drop of blood for it had been a little harder.

"We are switching to a heavy combat situation. I want you to leave Zabuza to me, but be ready to support me if required. Engage his backup if he appears." With that, the Copy-Cat Ninja unveiled his Sharingan as they walked out of the mist at the end of the bridge.

Slashed open bodies lay around the ground as it appeared several of the early workers had been killed. The lap of the water against the supports below was chilling in the morning quiet. Zabuza and the shorter ninja in the ANBU-style mask stood in the center of the massacre.

"Isn't it a wonderful morning for someone to die, Haku?" the masked ninja asked his subordinate. His zanbatu was leaned across across his massive, heavy set shoulders. The cold mist did not seem to affect him the slightest, even with a bare chest.

Haku appeared to be dressed much more sensibly, but in a matter that made it hard to determine his (or her?) gender. "Of course, Mr. Zabuza. They can't defend the bridge builder or his family this time."

"Strangely, they don't seem to be here for you to kill them," Kakashi called out while almost smirking, though it was hard to say through his own mask. "So I'm afraid you'll have to do with little old Team 7." He held up a kunai, blade down in preperation for the fight. "Team, take out the fake Hunter."

Zabuza charged forward, swinging his huge blade in an attempt to cut the Leaf Jonin in half as water clones appeared to attack the genin team.

In a flash of kunai, Sasuke sliced up all of the clones by himself while smirking. Looking over at the other two genin, he said in a very cold way while smiling, "I want to test myself against this one. Leave it to me."

Sheila sighed. Charging headlong at a foe without any back up was a good way to get killed.

Naruto gave Sasuke a look for a moment and then nodded. He could not blame him for wanting to prove himself every bit as good as Sheila.

"Naruto, can you support Sasuke? I'm going to help our fearless leader in his fight against Zabuza." She dashed in the direction of Kakashi's fight even as she went over her limited set of wind techniques. Her best idea was to overload a hot 'dust devil' technique. Her hands flashed through a series of handsigns, starting all the wind to move as she pumped heat into it.

The mist fought her stubbornly, but started to shred into swirling filaments of fog that was being broken up by the heating up air.

"You are better than I thought, Copy-Cat. Not many people know how to break up fog," Zabuza admitted he slid sideways as he started to become visible.

"Well, she is the Number One rookie of Konoha," he answered as he rocketed across the bridge as he threw a kunai at the swordsman. He would have to ask her how she broke up the fog so easily, as that should become a standard technique to learn to fight against the Mist Ninja of the Hidden Village in the Mists.

Zabuza barely dodged, getting a gash on his shoulder. That seemed to anger him even as he blocked three more kunai with his sword.

Sheila finished another set of handseals. Technically, it was two techniques without a pause in between. The first was a low level genjitsu while the second was a simple blast of fire from a D-Rank ninjitsu that she knew would not come close. The fire was just to mask that she had put him under a distorted sense of time; speeding up and slowing down his awareness very randomly.

Sasuke was dominating his fight with the supposed Hunter Ninja, his increased chakra-boosted speed from the water walking exercise coming into good stead. Naruto only threw kunai into their combat when he felt he could get an easy hit on the enemy. Haku, on the other hand, was severely feeling the pressure from the good teamwork.

"It appears you have force me to use my trump," the masked ninja stated as fingers danced through handseals.

Mirrors of ice appeared around the last Uchiha, much to his surprise. He reacted instantly to exit the apparent trap by trying to leap between the mirrors. But Haku had already moved to shift his body into the ice and images appeared on every surface. Before Sasuke could get free, he found himself flung back into the center and pierced by the senbon needles that Haku liked to use.

Naruto blinked at that, then watched anxiously as Sasuke seemed to be unable to cope. The first set of needles pierced the last Uchiha as if he were standing still. But something strange was happening. After each attack, he seemed to be improving in speed and dexterity even if even his 'grand fireball' could not melt the ice.

Naruto decided not to just throw kunai after the fifth attack that left Sasuke skewered, so he ran forward as he threw several kunai with explosive tags at the mirrors. He had a huge grin on his face as he appeared in the center of the mirrors. "I guess you need my help after all," he crowed. Time to be the hero!

Just before the tags finished activating, Haku blitzed around faster than the eye could follow. Confetti shreds fluttered through the air as the tags wrapped on the kunai were shredded by the senbon's tips.

"You idiot," Sasuke muttered darkly. "Now you are trapped in here with me."

Naruto created whole bunch of clones to try and force an exit, only to watch as they were popped by the Mist Ninja. "This sucks!"

"Sheila, I can handle Zabuza now. You need to rescue your team mates." The three-tomoed eye spun lazily even as it laid a genjitsu of his own upon the Seventh Swordsman. They started to do hand-signs simultaneously as dragons of water rose from the sea below.

"On it!" she called out as she zipped off at seemingly chakra-boosted speeds. The scene was fairly horrifying, as it appeared Sasuke and Naruto were about to die. Her inattentiveness was going to cost them, she bitterly blamed herself.

Haku sent off a last attack at the pair of boys that Sasuke managed to intercept... with his own body.

"Why?" Naruto asked in horror.

"My body- it moved- on its- own." And with that, Sasuke slumped forward as his Sharingan faded away.

"NO!" the last boy standing shouted as his eyes turned blood red even as his hands seemed to grow short claws. Another kunai thunked into the ground at his feet as Sheila appeared in the circle.

"Now you are all trapped-" Haku started to say when Sheila grabbed both boys and and then disappeared with another handsign.

"He killed Sasuke," Naruto roared as he ripped himself from Sheila's grasp as easily as an adult would from a babe and knocking her down. "Why? Why would you kill him? He was no threat to you!" The Malice around him was swirling into red, blood-like chakra.

"Naruto! Stop! You anger is freeing _it!_" Sheila shouted even as she looked over Sasuke.

Naruto was not listening too well at that point, charging the mirrors and smashing one in an instant, much to Haku's shock.

"That isn't possible." And Haku was running out of chakra, so did not think that the fight could continue long. With a switch, Haku was now in the overhead mirror.

"Naruto! Sasuke's not dead. He's just paralyzed. Sasuke will be fine if we win." Thank goodness for her ability to actually see ailments of the body with just a glance. She carefully removed needles, then used it to quickly hit three more shiatsu points to restart his nerves. That allowed him to groan in pain.

"He's not dead?" the boy replied stupidly as he appeared back by the last Uchiha, the anger evaporating instantly. He actually wavered unsteadily on his feet for just a moment.

Sheila let out a deep breath. "Don't do that! Honestly. Hey, you!" Sheila called out then to the enemy ninja. "I think its time to end this fight."

Haku nodded in his mirror. The ninja had been about to abandon the mirrors to resume the fight upon the bridge, but if they wanted to attack... "Very well."

Sheila flourished six explosive even as she made six clones. Each clone was handed a tag and then charged forward to encircle the the mirrors in a blurs. Haku confidently sent out a wave of needle to dispel them when six more clones popped appeared at the edge and instantly placed six more tags that were already burning down. The missing ninja quickly created a shell of ice as a shield. The heavy-explosive tags shattered the mirrors (and fair part of the bridge, Sheila realized with a wince.)

"She used the Flying Thunder God technique to free her teammates?" Zabuza asked in utter stupefaction as stepped back away from Kakashi's kunai-slash. "I thought that was lost with the Fourth Hokage?"

"Aren't my students precocious?" the Leaf Jonin asked with an almost visible smirk even as he twirled his eye.

"Your _genin_ is learning a kage level S-Rank flee-on-sight attack?" He had been unnerved by the Sharingan allowing Kakashi to mimic his attacks, even seemingly seeing into the future and knowing what he was going to do ahead of time due to some sort of apparition that had appeared behind him.

Haku pushed out of the shattered ice cocoon, blood leaking from various cuts. "Zabuza, I don't think I can continue long."

Zabuza appeared in a swirl of water next to his apprentice. "That's okay, because we are leaving. Gato is _not_ paying us enough for this." He grabbed the other missing ninja and they leaped to the water below.

"Should we chase?" Sheila asked. Wasn't there some adage that she had read? "But I remember something about not chasing them into the water."

"Exactly. And I think your first successful use of that attack scared him off. I'm actually really jealous, as I never figured that out myself." Kakashi looked very happy.

Sheila sagged to the ground and tapped that last bit of essence of her legend and healed him slightly. Weakness seemed to creep up her body as even her arms did not seem to want to work.

Her hands fumbled to her leg pouch and pulled out a pill tube. She tried to uncork it, but Naruto had to pull it from her hands.

"What's this?" the demon-container asked as he handed her a pill. He then put his hand to his stomach with a grimace.

"Soldier pill. I burned through a lot of chakra." She had not felt this tired in months since she had become extraordinarily sturdy of body. With a crunch, she chewed up the pill and immediately perked up. "Much better than coffee. How are you doing, Sasuke?"

"Candmove," Sasuke sort of mumbled. He was desperately trying to clench his fists and only getting a twitch.

"He's actually recovering very fast," Kakashi noted as set his student on a crate to get him out of the cold, wet water.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Sheila asked suddenly as she noted his discomfort.

"_Its_ chakra doesn't feel so good, I guess. I've never felt that angry," he replied carefully.

"I should check your seal. Pull up your shirt, Naruto. Now channel some chakra," he ordered as he leaned over to examine the eight-pointed seal as it appeared. "Hmm. Nothing looks amiss."

"That's it?" Sheila asked studying the seal intently from ten feet away. There were advantages to super-acute vision though.

"Oh... crap," Sasuke said as he finally put all the pieces together. Something was sealed in Naruto. And it was an incredibly complicated seal, beyond anything he had ever heard of. "That's why Sheila can smell fire, death and fox from Naruto." He sat up awkwardly. "He has a demon sealed within him... the Nine-Tailed Demon."

Sheila just ignored him as she started munching on an energy bar, while Kakashi looked up from studying the seal.

"You can't talk about it," he finally told his team. "If you have any questions, you will have to ask the Hokage."

The mist lifted from the end of the bridge revealing a huge mob of men. Roughs, toughs and lowlifes of all color and creed stood there, brandishing a truly astounding variety of weapons.

Two ronin were just arriving at the back of the rabble where a short, unpleasant looking man stood. The ronin with an eyepatch called out, "Gato, there was a problem. The daughter and kid weren't there."

"And where is my damn ninja?" Gato the crime lord demanded. He looked comical with his sunglasses and spikey hair atop his balding, overweight head.

"He abandoned you. I think he mentioned something about you not paying him enough," Sheila called out as she stood up. She suddenly has far, far too much chakra. It was like she had crested some personal hill.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to kill you all then. With you out of the way, Tazuna won't dare show his face around here and the bridge will never be completed," the crime lord boasted.

Sheila had pulled out a strange weapon, blocky and silver. "Kakashi?"

"Well, that wasn't very smart. I'm not that tired and I'm a bit cranky that my fighting partner showed the good sense to flee," Kakashi said in an apparently casual manner. He was struck suddenly by how intense her presence was. She seemed more _there_ somehow. Suddenly more there. And that didn't make any sense.

Naruto just created a swarm of shadow clones to guard Sasuke. "Let's do this!"

Sasuke looked annoyed he needed protecting in the first place but in his heart knew he was not up for this fight. And he loathed that feeling with every fiber of his being.

"There is a reason you don't attack a jonin without preparation. Do you know why?" Kakashi asked his students as he started to fly through handseals.

"Uh, no?" Naruto called back.

That was when Kakashi suddenly unleashed a massive fireball that killed all of Gato's men and the leader himself.

Sheila just stared in shock. She had really thought she had been improving, but she knew she could not unleash anything that large without a lot of set up. She clenched her fist as she swore to keep improving.

"Sheila, go retrieve our client. The bridge still needs to be completed before we can head home to Konoha," the jonin ordered.

* * *

Team 7 was standing at the end of the bridge on the mainland side. Kakashi was giving Tazuna a flat look. "Just remember, that you have to pay back the cost of an A-Rank mission in five years. I would recommend that you pay it back sooner rather than later."

The bridge-builder nodded in a passive way. It could be worse and was well worth the local peace and prosperity. "We'll figure out some way."

"Stay safe, kid! You need to grow up strong just like us," Naruto said to the young grandson.

Inari nodded. "Yeah! I'll be able to protect my mom!"

They bopped fists together. Sheila wasn't sure how Naruto had gotten through the emotionally hurting boy, but he seemed to have a knack. It was something to keep in mind for later.

"All right. Now its time to get back to Konoha," Kakashi called out to his team.

"So is there anything important on the trip back that we need to do?" Sheila asked casually.

"Not really. I'm sure I can show you some things on the trip, but the sooner we report in, the better," the jonin noted.

"I can get us back as quickly through a space-time technique. All you have to do is hold on."

"I'm all for getting back to Konoha," Sasuke said. He had a library to look through with his new Sharingan eyes, after all.

"Ichiruka! Time for ramen!" the demon container exclaimed happily.

Kakashi shrugged, then put his hand on his student's shoulder. Sasuke and Naruto followed suit and in a poof of smoke, they were suddenly standing in a large sealing array that took up the floor in her living room. "What's this?"

"This is my version of the master seal for the self-summoning seal I made. And I can already see things in it that I need to fix." Her intelligence had suddenly increased, she noted to herself, if she could actually _see_ something like that after just a moment's glance. She frowned as she looked at it. Not just her intelligence, but her understanding of occult matters.

Suddenly, she was grinning. Her legend must have increased. According to what she had read, it was an ever-increasing advancement. Not quite exponential, but very fast.

"Ramen! Wahoo!" Naruto shouted out as he opened a window. "See you guys in the morning."

"Later," Sasuke called out, following Naruto out the window.

"And I'll just meander over to the gate to let them know that we are back." If he remembered right, the chunin exams were coming up in a few weeks. His team he felt was very ready for those exams, he thought as he disappeared out the window in a flicker.

'Tenzo going to be shocked when I show him I can do a wood technique now,' Kakashi mused as he leaped roofs on his way to the entrance. Admittedly not anywhere near as well as the fellow ANBU was able to, but being able to do a blood limit ability period was amazing. But he had other things he had to do.

Sheila made a single hand sign, instantly filling up the room with twenty clones. "Now that was odd. Why is it suddenly significantly easier to create clones? Could it have to do with my Legend increasing?"

Ah well, she had a lot more studying to do. She pulled out a large scroll and immediately started to scribble the details she had seen on the eight-seal she had seen on Naruto. Once she had that finished, she frowned. Had she actually seen this before? No, she had not seen it, but old man Watanabe had mentioned a four symbol seal that fit several of the criteria.

Well, it was time to see if her new, expanded intelligence really was up for deciphering lost fujinitsu. She turned to her clones. "Okay. Five of you start working on improved kunai with the new version of the space-time technique. Let's see if we can make it so efficient we can use it constantly in combat. The rest of you are with me in trying to reverse-decipher this seal.

* * *

With a poof, Kakashi appeared in front of the Hokage. "Lord Hokage, Team 7 has returned. Mission complete and successful."

Sarutobi nodded. "And you are here because something unusual happened during the mission? How bad was it?"

"The missing ninja Zabaza Momochi was hired to kill the bridge builder. He might have been a match for me, but he also had a renegade hunter-ninja. I'd say only chunin in level, though he had a bloodline limit."

"But that is not why you are here, is it? Something happened to you team?" Hiruzen's eyes narrowed, noting that Kakashi did not even look winded or hurt.

"More that they have done things. Sasuke knows about Naruto's prisoner. I'm sure he can be convinced to keep quiet about it, but you may have to explain things carefully."

"Again starting with your lesser problems? And who is second least problem?" the hokage asked as he reached for his pipe and filled it with tobacco.

Kakashi thought for a long second. "Naruto may have accidentally pulled on the Kyubi's chakra. It wasn't very long and his seal looked fine."

"That is worrisome, though I'm more worried about what you think is worse than the Nine-Tail." The Third Hokage was staring at him in a hard way.

"Sheila may have actually figured out a way to duplicate multi-elemental bloodlines." Kakashi narrowed his one visible eye. "No, not that she figured it out, but that she learned how to do so within the span of one day after learning of single-handed seals."

"Kakashi, that's been the holy regalia of ninjitsu for centuries. No one has been able to figure out how to duplicate such bloodlines. It is not possible," the old man remonstrated.

The Copy-Cat Ninja went through a very strange set of hand-seals, causing a small branch to grow out of the ground of his office. "This is no joke, my lord Hokage. I learned how to do it watching her with my Sharingan, though I need a lot of practice before I'm anywhere near competent with wood release techniques."

The old man behind the desk had nearly dropped his pipe at that display. "I stand corrected. Does it work with any bloodline?"

"I'm having Sasuke research into the Uchiha clan library. They were always upset that they could not duplicate those powers with their eyes. And he feels it is a good way to gain power in a way that he knows his brother can not have," the jonin stated.

"That makes sense. Tell me everything that happened, Kakashi. I want to know everything on the mission."

* * *

The valley walls were sheer rock faces, making the road with a small outpost of soldiers from the Land of Stone. So the samurai were quite shocked when two figures appeared next to them in a swirl of water-droplets.

"Missing Ninja? Were you hired to attack us?" the captain called out even as he reached for his sword.

"No, we come for a different purpose. I want you to send a message to Iwagakure and the Third Tsuchikage. Tell him I have news of the Yellow Flash... and his child." Zabuza Momochi smirked behind his half-mask that covered his lower face.

"The Yellow Flash's kid? What nonsense are you talking about? He had no family."

"And ninja never lie, honorable samurai," Haku noted, features masked behind porcelain.

"Droll humor for a missing-nin," the captain said. "You want them to send someone to talk to you?"

"No, I want them to pay me for the information. But only on my terms. But I think my terms are very simple." He then set his fishing hook with the bait. "After all, a genin that is mastering the Flying Thunder God Technique is valuable, is it not?"

The soldiers froze at that. "I'll pass your message to the Tsuchikage," the captain said stiffly.

"I'm sure you will. We'll be around."

With that, the two ninja vanished into a sudden mist that appeared.


	2. Begin Chunin Exam

Sheila held up a brace of four kunai with odd symbols engraved down the center three days later. With a flip of the blades, she tossed them at a practice dummy. With a flicker-flash, she appeared behind the target, all of the kunai in her hands as it fell apart behind her.

"You can come out now, Sasuke." Sheila looked over her shoulder at the other genin. In her mind she was working on the last touches of of the four-symbol and eight-symbol sealing method, which were quite amazing. She had finally convinced old man Tojo that sold esoteric scrolls and sealing scrolls to show her the four-symbol scroll for just a minute. She had immediately memorized the entire thing and noted three mistakes or traps. Considering what she had seen, probably traps to catch the unwary.

He leaped down from the tree he had been hiding in. Sheila's skill at detecting him had increased a lot. "You have become a lot better at that. I can barely summon myself once. And you just summoned yourself four times in a second. While not cutting yourself at all with the spinning blades."

"It's just a matter of timing," she replied with a shrug.

Naruto ran up, huffing and puffing. "Ah, man. I'm barely on time."

That was when Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves. "Good morning my cute genin!" he called out brightly. "I have something exciting that most genin don't get to see often."

Beside him another ninja appeared in a similar swirl of leaves, wearing the flak-vest of a jonin.

"This is Tenzo. He has a very rare bloodline that we are going to use in training. Isn't that wonderful?"

The dark-eyed man nodded slightly. He was wearing head-gear protection that was similar to the Second Hokage. With two handsigns, he made a tree grow from the ground. "I understand you might be able to duplicate that."

Naruto nodded excitedly. "Yeah! Just watch me!" The young blond quickly made the two sets of hand signs at the same time, his forehead beading in concentration as he created a small sapling that looked quite anemic.

"I guess even an idiot can learn something," Sasuke said with a smirk.

That was when Sheila did her wood release technique, trapping Sasuke in the grip of two small trees. "And you aren't supposed to insult your teammates, remember?"

Sasuke just struggled. Finally he realized that she was waiting for his response. "I remember."

"And?"

"I'm sorry for calling Naruto an idiot," he said with entirely false sincerity. Bitch.

Sheila gave him a final glare, even if she noted that he had not actually apologized to Naruto for insulting him. With a wave of her hand, she made the branches pull back.

"You've already gotten to that level? I could barely make a tree when I was just out of the academy," Tenzo noted. Of course, he was only nine then and moved directly into ANBU for intense training. "You're what, thirteen?"

"I turn twelve in four months, actually!"

"Ah, tall for your age," Tenzo said sagely. "I'm rather impressed that you managed to get the basics of wood release down, but it needs work."

"Yeah, but all I can make is one little tree," Naruto complained. It really wasn't much use in a fight.

"Yes, but for someone without the bloodline, that is amazing. Mixing the right amount of water and earth chakra together is hard for your body." Tenzon then nodded. "In fact, your figuring out how to artificially make wood release has allowed me to figure out how use my power more efficiently."

With that, he made a set of handsigns and a new, huge tree sprouted up.

"Not very subtle that there is still someone with wood release technique still alive. And with you not being name Senju... artificial bloodline creation?" Sheila asked as she thought over the matter thoroughly and clearly.

"My my, she sure deduces a lot, doesn't she?" their jonin stated.

"That is true. Of course, we can't confirm or deny anything. If such things existed... they would be high secrets of the village." His glare was quite ominous. "But we are here today to do a secret C Rank mission inside of Konoha."

The genin all shared a confused look.

Twenty minutes later, they were looking at a thoroughly trashed training ground. Scorched earth, blasted hillocks and shattered trees lay haphazardly around the rubbish-choked river that wound its way through it.

"We are going to reforest this section," Tenzo explained. "But to get it done in a timely manner, you will have to learn how to grow a full tree every few minutes."

The three genin started working on growing small trees. Sasuke was actually the slowest and made the most weak-looking tree, much to his personal disgust. Maybe he should not have focused on that Lava element? Naruto was improving rapidly and could grow a full tree in ten minutes, though it drained him to do so. Sheila was faster, but she seemed to improve or get worse in an almost random manner.

"Are you having a problem?" Kakashi asked the girl.

"No, just trying to figure out the best way to do this. And I'm very close, I think." And she really was. She put her hand to her medallion under her gi, focusing on her limited ability to draw upon the wisdom that owls were noted for. Chakra almost seemed to glow at her feet as she attempted to push herself harder than ever before. Her hands danced their duet of chakra and power.

And suddenly it was much, much easier as a mighty tree suddenly sprouted up. Twenty feet, then thirty feet. Finally, at fifty feet, the massive tree shaded them all.

"Got it!" she shouted excitedly.

Sasuke and Naruto both stared at her in shock.

"Is that even human?" Naruto asked with wide eyes.

"Hey!" she shouted back in mock outrage.

"How did you get so good?" Sasuke demanded. Maybe this would help him figure out his problem with Lava. He could barely make warm rocks at his current level.

"It's... a matter of timing your pulses of chakra from within your stomach to your hands. Do either of you play music? It's similar to playing three musical notes with one hand while timing that two notes in your left hand to merge into tones. That wasn't the best description, but its the closest I could come up with. Sasuke, watch the timing on my hands very closely."

He eagerly activated his Sharingan eyes, soaking up the two different sets of seals. The timing was much different than what he had been trying. He copied the move and then much to his surprise, grew a much larger and stronger tree. "I did it!"

"I don't have the Sharingan to do that," Naruto complained.

"Yes, but I learned it myself and without the Sharingan. He's only using his eye to copy it. You just have to watch closely and try it again and again. You might need to use your clones."

"I'll do it!" With a poof, Naruto made two dozen clones and set them to working on it.

Kakashi went through the handsigns, creating a huge tree. "Interesting, don't you think, Tenzo? So your bloodline must do this automatically."

"Though not quite perfectly in my case. In fact, I think that you might have helped the existing Senju figure out why they did not have the bloodline, even though they were related to the first Hokage. I heard a few chunin that were distantly related have started figuring out the difference." Tenzo nodded at that.

That was when one of Naruto's clones suddenly bowled them all over as it made a huge tree, easily two-hundred feet tall. It actually popped all of the clones and set them rolling across the ground.

"Huh, that was funny. It was incredibly easy all of a sudden," the blond demon-container said from under a bush.

Tenzo frowned as he helped Sasuke back up. The dark-haired genin was favoring his right arm. "Naruto, do you remember the original hand signs? Try to use that feeling but with those original hand-signs."

The blond stuck his head out of the bush. "Okay!" he shouted out.

"Over there, Naruto!" Sheila yelled out, pointing towards an open area.

"Wha-?" Sasuke asked through his pain just as a massive, huge tree rocketed up into sky.

"Idiot..." the demigoddess said as she clapped a hand to her forehead. "When it's suddenly easier does not mean put your whole effort into it. Well, Naruto, congratulations. You must be distantly related to the First Hokage somehow."

"I am? What?"

Kakashi slapped the back of the young boy. "She's right. You seemed to have figured out a bit of your bloodline. I'm actually quite shocked." Especially since he _knew_ who Naruto's parents actually were.

"Wahoo!" he shrieked happily, jumping up and down excitedly. "Where do the Senju live? I want to go meet my clan!"

That got a laugh out of everyone.

* * *

It was three weeks later that Sheila was following behind Naruto and his 'friend' Konohamaru Sarutobi, the youngest grandson of Hiruzen Sarutobi who happened to be the Third Hokage, they 'played ninja.' It happened to be in her direction to her apartment, so she followed along.

Team 7 was finished training and doing missions for today as they were abruptly left to their own devices when Kakashi had spotted a messenger hawk, to Sheila's mild curiosity.

He didn't seem worried or flustered, but rather in a rather moved in anticipation.

After that, Naruto had run into a very young boy and his 'team' that had tried to ambush him from under a box painted as a rock.

"Hey, Naruto!" Konohamaru called out. The two kids with him were also wearing

It was when he called her flat as a board that she started leaking serious killing intent at him to get him to run away.

"Oooph!" Konohamaru called out as he ran into someone down the street.

"Watch where you are going, brat," a female snapped out. The girl had her blonde hair up in four mini-tails and a huge fan across her back, but easily lifted the child by one hand.

"Hey, it was an accident," Naruto called out as he caught up to his diminutive friends.

Sheila appeared next to Naruto in a swirl of leaves, stumbling from the high speed movement. "Sand ninja? Openly here in Konoha?" Her eyes narrowed at the girl.

The black-garbed teen next to her laughed, his painted face looking quite grim. "That's right, we're here for the Chunin Exam."

The girl dumped Konohamaru on his butt. "You should watch out where you are going."

"Eh, hehe. Sorry." He scrambled back to his two friends, putting some distance between him and the second scary blonde.

"Chunin Exam?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"It must be here in the Land of Fire this time. The last time was in the Land of Grass," Sheila noted, drudging up a memory of the short list of chunin that had passed from the cover of a newspaper four months ago.

"Huh? I don't understand," the demon container said to his team mate.

"It's a series of tests to advance to the rank of chunin. It's been an open examination since the 3rd Great Ninja War, when it was determined that all genin were eligible to attempt it every six months." Sheila wanted to scratch her head a lot. "I guess it moves between the larger nations as a point of prestige. How odd." It didn't make a lick of sense. It was like a bloodthirsty form of the Olympics.

Naruto suddenly slapped his fist into the palm of his other hand. "I so want to try for that."

"You?" the male teen in all black asked. "You didn't even know what it was. How long ago did you graduate? Have you even done a C-Rank mission?" He then started laughing at them.

"We might be just out of the Academy, but we just did a C-Rank," he shouted back.

"C-Ranks are so boring, aren't they Naruto? I mean the A-Rank against Zabuza of the Seven Swords was much more our teams speed, don't you think?" Sheila said casually to divert him from blabbing about the secret re-forestation mission.

"Hell yeah!"

The two Sand Ninja blinked at that. The girl glared at Sheila. "You are seriously expecting us to believe that you took on a Mist Ninja like one of the Seven Swords?"

"Yes. Though really, running away like that showed he had a little bit of common sense, I suppose," she answered in a way that would put them on edge. Then she smiled at them as she turned to look up into a hidden shadow. "The third member of your team?"

The last, youngest member of the ninja from the Land of Wind stepped out of the shadows on the underside of a branch. "Mother says you shouldn't exist. She remembers eating the last of your kind a long time ago," the boy with almost raccoon markings around his eyes.

Sheila suddenly narrowed her eyes as she picked up a scent of howling winds, cloying incense and chants and the rabid chitter of a racoon drowning out everything. "But I'm still here, so that can not be correct." What the hell had he meant? Did he know she was the daughter of a goddess? And eating the last of her kind? Scions? Demigods? Or even worse... the gods themselves?

Dark, onyx eyes stared at Gaara from the shadows of a nearby tree. So far Sasuke had not needed to reveal himself, but that could change in a moment.

"You are interesting. Mother wants your blood," the boy said in a creepy manner, almost smiling. "I am Gaara of the Sand."

"I am Sheila of the Leaf," she replied flatly, suddenly all business.

"We're leaving now," he ordered the two older genin. "Now."

"But we wanted to see more of the city," the make-up painted older boy said.

"Kankuro... shut up or I'll kill you," Gaara ordered as he glared at the older boy from the branch of a tree.

The painted ninja suddenly showed a great fear on his face, sweat beading down his cheek and forehead. "Fine. Fine. Come on, Temari." The three Sand Ninja walked off without looking back.

"Wow, that was cool," Konohamaru shouted. "Sheila was really cool! Why do you suck, boss?" His two friends did not look convinced. The girl pulled at his sleeve, catching his attention. "Yeah?"

"Who was that?" Moegi asked.

"Trouble. Naruto, Sasuke? We need to go talk to Konohamaru's grandfather about something I just smelled. I wonder what Raccoon means?" she said in a slightly overly bland way. "You three head home where its safe. Now!"

Naruto looked confused, then worried while Sasuke just appeared in a poof.

"That bad?" the darker-haired genin asked.

"Maybe worse." With a handseal, she created three clones that immediately took off at a sprint and then disappeared in a poof. "Mini-Urds there are not, but that should work." The doll-sized clones leaped up to the roof of a building to trail the three Sand Genin.

With that, Team 7 leaped from roof to roof, racing to the Hokage's Tower.

"Team 7 sans our jonin to see the Hokage about a matter of importance. We may have stumbled upon a threat to Konoha," Sheila stated as they landed next to the Hokage's chunin personal assistance.

"Genin don't bring up important matters," the stuffy looking shinobi stated.

"Genin also don't usually encounter a possible demon container within the city either," Sasuke remarked dryly.

You could almost see the gears in the chunin's head clicking and whirring away as he looked at Sasuke, then Naruto then glared at all three of them. "Come with me. If this is a prank-" he said while glaring at Naruto, "-I will have you suspended for a month."

He rapped on the Hokage's door, entering in and leading in the three genin.

"Ah, Team 7! Already coming here to announce that you are entering into the Chunin Exam?" he asked in a jovial manner.

"We barely heard that it was going to be in Konoha, Hokage. And from three genin from the Land of Wind," Sheila started explaining. "While I know Naruto has already stated he wants in, we think we have a more important matter to bring to your attention?"

"Oh? So serious. Go ahead then," he said as he set himself to laugh at the younger generation's antics.

"I believe that the Hidden Village in Sand has sent a demon container to take part in the Chunin Exam. I smelled the essence of an insane raccoon, festooned in the scent of incense and a howling sandstorm," Sheila explained.

"Are you sure? The One-Tailed Raccoon? This is... more serious than I thought." He was suddenly the Third Hokage, no longer the kindly grandfather. "Umichi, get the records of the gate log. I want the name of the Sand genin and their jonin leader. Send their names over to Torture and Interrogation to dig up all their information."

"This isn't normal, is it? I mean, I'm a genin, so I'd have to take the chunin exam, wouldn't I?" Naruto asked after Umichi disappeared.

"Naruto, I'm afraid you would never be allowed to take the Exam in any other hidden village, not even with our most trusted allies. They were our most bitter enemies at times and it could be construed an act of war. You would either only be allowed to take the Chunin Exam here in Konoha or be promoted outside the Exam." Hiruzen suddenly looked as old as he really was. "Maybe they are just sneaking him in here to promote him and I am only being an old man. But I better serve Konoha by being paranoid."

"Sheila has a spy on them already," Sasuke noted.

"Oh, very nicely done. Initiative is a valued trait of a leader. But you should run along now," the Hokage ordered, sending them out of the room.

Sheila stood in the hallway, staring off into distance. "I need to think about this." She looked over at them. "If we do get into the Chunin Exam... I think we may be in a position to deal with him. Fighting between the genin is considered normal. Maybe I should make sure he dies."

Naruto and Sasuke shared a hard look. "We're with you," Sasuke replied.

"Right. Naruto, make a whole bunch of sealing scrolls and explosive tags. I need to finish my work on a seal. Sasuke, do you think your family's library might have information on the One-Tail?" she asked.

"I will have to look, but it would not surprise me," he answered. "I did find out something of interest. The Element of Wood can bind a tailed beast. The First Hokage actually tamed all of the beasts according to my clans founder."

"So we need to get really good at the different wood techniques then," Naruto said with a happy and gleeful face. "Mr. Fudo Senju has been really pleased with my progress."

"Okay. Let's do this," Sheila called out, holding out a fist to receive their fist-bumps back.

* * *

At that same time, a six inch tall shadow-clone of Sheila had followed the trio of kids of Sand to their hostel down in the main dining hall.

Baki was glaring at the two older genin. "I told you to keep out of trouble." The older jonin scanned the area for a second to make sure they were alone. "You know how important this is to your father."

"This whole things is stupid," Temari noted in an angry tone.

That was when three older genin walked into the inn.

"I heard Papa Himo's udon is to die for," the gray-haired and bespectacles leader of the group said.

His group sat down and started talking. If Sheila had not been watching, she would not have seen the gray-haired genin 'accidentally' drop a kunai with a green ribbon attached to it or the twitch of Baki's eye as he spotted it.

"Kabuto, there is the reason you are still a genin. You can't even use your tools correctly," his totally covered teammate noted, giving him a glare through his sunglasses.

Other than that, the seven ninja did not even talk or look at each other. When Kabuto left with his team, one of the trio of mini-clones trailed behind him very cautiously.

Hours after dark, Baki left his team alone and slunk out with a Mini-Sheila following him along. He stopped to check, but did not see the six inch spy. Baki and Kabuto met in the shadow of the nearest water-tower.

"Snakes are dangerous in any light," Kabuto said carefully and in a voice that only the superhumanly acute could overhear further away than the Sand jonin..

"But their poison is a delight," Baki replied to the coded question.

"Very good. So you brought your demon-container like the Kazekage promised? I assume it is one of your genin?" the bespectacled traitor asked.

"Of course. Will you be able to get our infiltrators into the city for the attack?" the turban-wearing jonin asked, still looking around in the dark carefully. He had a vague feeling of being followed.

"We are working on that. Our source for the patrol schedules is not someone involved in the attack, so we will have to convince him of an alternate reason. You must be very careful," Kabuto explained. "But he is very curious in medical cures for several of his problems."

"The exam does not start for a week, but we want to start moving in the sabotage teams in quickly," Baki replied.

"Of course. Orochimaru is more than willing to do anything to make sure this operation succeeds." Kabuto just smiled. He then nodded and took off at full speed.

Baki swept the area to verify if he had been followed, but could find nothing. Finally, he took off back to the hotel where the team from Sand was staying.

Kakashi stepped out of a shadow that was far too small to actually contain him. "Hmm. Well, I guess that confirms it."

A pint-sized Sheila shadow clone appeared next to him. "Kakashi? I've been shadowing them the whole day, but this is the only contact from Konoha that the jonin from the Hidden Village of Sand made."

"I didn't even notice you. I guess the super-small size helped with your stealth," the jonin noted with a curious tone.

"We had turned into rats, too. And rats aren't known for listening in to conversations from over one hundred feet away," she replied.

"ANBU and some jonin have been assigned to this. I'll get your report in the morning," he ordered carefully.

The clone nodded then dispelled itself.

* * *

"Okay, are we ready?" the young blonde teen asked her two team mates outside the blocky academy building a week later.

"You bet we are!" the other blond shouted out excitedly.

Sasuke just grunted as he followed them into the five story building. It was on the second floor that they found a gaggle of genin standing in front of a door labeled 301. She then walked right past it towards the stairs at the other end of the hall. For some reason, perhaps security, you had to travel along the main hall of each floor to take the inter-connecting stairs.

Naruto looked confused, while Sasuke just smirked as they kept on walking by.

"Hey! Where are you guys going?" a girl wearing a sleeveless Chinese-style top asked as her green-garbed friend confronted the two larger genin at the door to the classroom.

Sheila just looked over her shoulder. "This is the second floor." Then she continued to walk to the stairs as if that were all she needed to say.

Most of the genin looked confused until they realized that they were heading for the stairs up.

"You brat!" the genin guarding the door shouted. "You think you are so smart because you remembered something so elementary?"

"I'm actually insulted you would think I would fall for such an simple genjitsu," Sheila said at the bottom of the stairs. "Fine, if you want it that way." She made three handsigns and then the genjitsu was suddenly dispelled for everyone.

Tenten, the girl in the Chinese style clothing blinked. "That's a high level skill. Who are you?"

"I'm Sheila." Other than being taller, she did not really look older than the other kids.

The Hyuga next to her frowned. "The newest Rookie of the Year?" The new girl looked like just another pretty face, as pretty as the worst of the useless kunoichi that he despised. Was this last year that pathetic?

The genin that had been guarding the door suddenly rushed her, snapping out a blisteringly fast kick that Sheila turned to respond to. That was when the brightly green-garbed genin with a bowl haircut intercepted them both.

"I won't allow you to hurt her!" the new boy cried.

"I don't need you to protect me," Sheila almost growled out, shoving him back with a strength that actually surprised him.

"Lee! You idiot! You are showing off too much," Neji Hyuga snapped out as he moved over to support his teammate.

"Damn," Lee and the 'genin' that had attacked Sheila both said.

"Are you really the Rookie of the Year?" Tenten asked. "I've never heard of a girl that actually made that top slot."

Sheila shrugged. "Now if you don't mind, our team needs to check in. We'll probably get many chances to actually fight later."

Neji Hyuga was staring at her back as she walked up the stairs when he got elbowed in the side. Rock Lee was also staring, but in confusion. He had wanted to prove he was better than another genius of a bloodline, but the girl did not have any clan that he could tell.

"A Senju and and a Uchiha on one team," he muttered. "But the genius is the girl with no clan." He had to admit privately that he was quite smitten with the girl.

"Coming through!" a girl with strawberry-blonde hair said. "Move your lazy butt, Ami! Sasuke is getting away!"

"Quit shouting, Sakura! I'm right here," her new rival snapped right back.

Omo sighed as he followed his team.

Kakashi appeared in a poof of smoke in front of his team at the door to 301. "You all made it."

"You were the one that waited until the last day to give us the papers to sign up," Sheila noted. "You probably didn't want us over-thinking it or something. But we knew we wanted to take the Exam since Sunday."

"Yeah, what was with that, Kakashi? We're more than ready!" Naruto almost shouted out.

"Well, it will be a good experience for you anyways. And you really are getting better at seeing underneath the underneath," the jonin noted to them. "Luckily you all showed up, as you have to take the exam as a team. Usually you have to pass two of the tests as a team, too. I do hope that you fixed you teammates weaknesses."

And with that, he disappeared again.

The trio of Team 7 entered the softly loud room, full of genin. Sheila's eyes passed of Kabuto and his teammates without pause, the drifted over to Team 8 and Team 10.

"You guys made it too?" Team 7's most excitable member exclaimed loudly.

"Um, Naruto is here?" Hinata Hyuga asked in a pleased tone, while blushing slightly and playing with her fingers.

"Oh, great. It's wonder-team Sheila and Sasuke come to lord over how much better they are," Kiba Inuzuka complained. The ever stoic Shino Aburame just nodded at his side and adjusted his glasses.

"Sasuke!" Ino Yamanaka shouted, leaping to grab him from behind. "I've missed you!"

"No, you are on my back," he muttered in complaint.

Sheila snickered at his soft spoken complaint. She then saw the door open again and Team 11 walk in. "Well, well. All of the rookies made it."

Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi looked up from where they playing with some sort of tag. "That's pretty bothersome. There are a lot of us here, aren't there?" Choji just chuckled a bit and then continued to much on his high-calorie chips.

Sasuke had just divested himself of Ino when Sakura latched on. "Sasuke! Did you miss me?" she called out excitedly in his ear. With Sasuke visibly cringing as he was getting flashbacks to his Academy days.

"You kids are being really loud. Are you trying to get everyone angry at you?" the older, bespectacled genin of the Leaf asked as he wandered over. "Because if you are, you are doing a really good job."

Indeed, most of the non-Konoha ninja looked ready to attack them at any moment.

"Because they are all a bit nervous about passing this exam. You should be too, actually," the older teen noted.

Because it would be something someone should say, Sheila asked, "I take it this isn't your first time?"

The gray-haired teen shook his head. "No, this is actually my seventh time. They hold them ever six months."

Sakura gushed at the older boy. "So you must know a lot about the Exam then!"

"Like how to fail them," Sasuke muttered so softly Sakura and Kabuto didn't hear him.

"Indeed I do. But some of you look like you don't trust me," Kabuto said, looking at Sheila and Sasuke specifically.

Thinking quickly and glibly, she spouted off with, "I bet you are getting desperate to pass, so are looking for some stupid kids to set up as patsies."

Suddenly all of the kids were a bit more wary. Kabuto just smiled. "I'm wounded. Here, I'll share some of my information from my Nin-Info Cards as a show of good faith."

"I want information on Gaara of the Sand and Sheila of the Leaf," Sasuke said with a dark gleam in his eyes.

Now Sheila was glaring at him.

"Gaara of the Sand? Ah, here he is. Wow, he's completed nine missions, including an B-Rank missions with no wounds?" the older boy declared. "That pretty impressive for a Genin."

Sasuke frowned. That really did not say a whole lot.

Kabut then continued, putting chakra into the second card. "Ten D Rank missions, a C-Rank mission and an A-Rank? Also listed as never having returned wounded." The teen frowned. "That can't be right. It says your potential in taijitsu, ninjitsu, genjitsu and weapon use is all at nearly the highest level. The only thing I don't have is if you have any bloodline."

"I'm not from the elemental nations, so I have no bloodline of ninjitsu," she answered simply.

"Well, crap," Shikamaru said looking very frustrated. "Are you really that skilled?"

"Hey!" Naruto complained. "It doesn't list you knowing seals at all. His information is crap!"

"Naruto! Letting everyone know what you can do is bad!" Sheila snapped out. She had to hold herself back from bopping him on the head hard.

The other three teams looked at the Nin-Info Card for a second, then over to Sheila.

"You know seals, too?" Sakura asked in abject shock as she pointed at the girl. "But you only started learning to be a ninja a year ago!"

"I told you, I'm academically gifted. The term gets bandied around a lot, but I am smarter than just about anyone I've ever met," she replied without any tact.

Kabuto was looking at the card as if it had betrayed him. "You actually know how to use fujinitsu?"

"It's rather handy to make your own explosive tags, isn't it, Sasuke?" Her blue-green eyes met his onxy-black ones.

"Yeah, it really is." He gave everyone else a grim smile.

Choji and Shikamaru both shared a quick, worried glance at that while Hinata looked away shyly.

"Well, these are elite genin, just like Gaara and Sheila. You'll have to work very hard to pass. Heck, you'll have to struggle just to not die. It's happened before, after all," the older teen stated.

Sheila glared at him.

That was when Naruto overcame the feeling of oppressiveness that had been building. He pointed a finger at the rest of the crowd of genin. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki of Clan Senju! I won't lose to you bastards! Believe it!"

That got everyone glaring at him.

"Haha! That felt good!" the demon-container said in relief as the most of the girls of his age just stared at him in shock.

"You punk? And you are a Senju? Like that means anything," one of the older Inuzuka called out angrily.

"Hey!"

That was when three genin wearing camouflage suddenly charged from the crowd at Kabuto. A brace of kunai had the older teen leap into the air, forcing him into close combat. That got the second male Sound Ninja up close to swing at the bespectacled Leaf Ninja.

Kabuto seemed to dodge the three kicks and punches, but his glasses shattered, he collapsed to his knees and then puked.

"What? His attacker missed," Sasuke stated in stupefaction.

"Put that in your ninja cards. The genin from Sound will definitely make chunin," the bandage-wearing boy said grimly.

"Sound Ninja using concentrated bursts of sound. Who would have thought of that? With the way he's holding his ear, they must have burst his ear drum. Not a bad short range attack. I bet it can bypass most normal physical defenses," Sheila noted casually. She also noted that he had already healed from the attack with some sort of regeneration.

The three genin from the Village of Sound were suddenly glaring at here. "What do you know?" the turban and fur-wearing genin in the center demanded.

Sasuke just grinned ferally. "That the Number One Rookie of this year you are talking about. You have no clue how good we really are."

With a poof of smoke, chunin appeared at the front of the huge classroom.

"All of you shut up, you worthless bastards," the man in the center yelled out. The chunin around him were all very odd in appearance.

"Thanks for you patience, but it is time to start. I am Morino Ibiki for the first part of the Chunin Exam Selection." He gave them a grim smile that only accentuated his scars under his wrapped head. His mere presence had a lot of the genin flinching back and looking nervous. "You guys from Sound... do you want to be failed already for attacking out of bounds?"

"Sorry," the girl on their team called out. "We are just so excited."

"Right. This brings us to the fact that you will not fight unless we tell you it is allowed. Break that rule and you are gone. Did you get that, shit-heads?"

"Heh, this going to be easy," the Sound genin with spiky-black hair said with a sneer.

Morino started to explain the test, shocking Naruto as he realized... "This is a paper test!" he screamed out. Of all the banes to his existence, Naruto rated essay questions the highest.

"Don't worry, Naruto. I'm sure we will get past this," Sheila said while patting him on the shoulder. "Just listen closely and follow the instructions, okay?"

"Okay, I guess." Naruto looked quite dejected as Sasuke actually looked a bit worried.

Sheila used a few moments to handsign to one of her hidden, minature clones in the ceiling using HSL for deaf people.

Everyone sat down shortly as Morino continued, explaining that you had to answer ten questions. The trick was that if you were caught cheating, it subtracted two points from your ten correct answers possible. If you failed, your team lost.

They were all seated randomly with Naruto ending up sitting next to Kabuto and a ninja from the Land of Rivers.

'All right, Naruto. This is Sheila-clone on overwatch. I'm in the ceiling above you and using a ninjitsu that throws my voice into your ear. Just nod once if you understand.' The six inch tall clone nodded to herself as she saw Naruto respond. 'Very good, Naruto. Now I am going to give you most of the answers. It would be a majorly out of character for you to get all of them perfectly, but we are going to get enough for everyone to pass.'

Naruto suddenly had a huge grin on his face, his worries about flunking out with his worst skills now in the past. Even the tenth question that could not be answered until the end of the testing period was no big deal. He answered seven of the questions with the clone's help and struggled manfully with the last two and even got halfway on one of them when time was called.

Morino frowned as he tried to figure out how the loudmouthed kid was cheating. He deducted two points for the use of the Sharingan from Sasuke, but the kid had twigged on fast to copying the nearest inserted chunin. But Naruto seemed to just sprout the answers and would just nod randomly. If he didn't know better, he would think the kid had a radio.

Morino then turned to the final girl of Team 7 that had finished the test _before_ their stalking-horse could leak the information to the rest of the testers. Which meant she actually just knew things that even most jonin would have a hard time answering. And with the fastest time of one minute and thirty seconds.

He gave her a hard glare, but she just smiled at him. Which meant she had probably figured out a way to cheat, even though he had personally had every copy of the test in his presence since they had been printed yesterday.

Ino copied Sakura's test and then helped her teammates get the answers. Tenten and Rock Lee both managed it while Neji just copied off the guy in front, each only getting caught once. Kiba and his trained puppy copied some answers only a little more blatantly than Shino while Hinata actually had a very easy time copying one of the plants without even having to activate her bloodline. Omo and Ami managed to squeak by with a creative use of genjitsu by the other girl of Team 11.

Forty-five minutes into the test, Morino started into the Tenth Question. It was basically a do or die question and Sheia instantly saw how the last hour had ramped up the excitable genin's emotions. He gave them the option of taking the question or not, but they would immediately fail and be banned from the Chunin Exam in the future if they tried and answered wrong.

Genin started to fall to the superior psychological pressure from the special jonin of the Torture and Interrogation Division.

Naruto then totally came out of left field, slamming his palm down after it had looked like he was about to raise it and fail. "Do not underestimate me! Even if I never become chunin, I'll become the greatest ninja ever and Hokage! Believe it! I am not afraid of your question!"

Sheila actually had to grin, as he got the exact right answer.

Morino stared around for a long second, then frowned. The demon-container had totally killed his oppressive mood. "Is that your final answer?" he asked to try to bring back the previous tension. When no one stepped forward to quit, he then spoke up again. "Then... you all pass. Staying here and taking the last question _is_ the Tenth Question. You have proved that you have the mental fortitude to take on missions which might end up in your death."

He pulled off his headgear to reveal his wounds and why gathering information was so important. He was just finishing up his spiel when a figure burst through the window and in a flurry of motion, planted a huge banner behind her.

The black-haired special jonin had an overcoat over her body-mesh and skirt. "I'm Anko Mitarashi, the proctor for the second part. Hey, Morino, you left twenty-eight teams! Your test was way too easy this time!"

"We have a lot of good genin this year," the other special jonin admitted. "You might be surprised."

"Heh. Doesn't matter, I'll cut them down to at least half. That's a promise," she declared as she turned back to the rest of them. "All right you lot, the next part is at Training Ground 44. Be there in an hour or forfeit."

* * *

In less than an hour, all twenty-eight teams had shown up and were standing around the chain-link fence that was totally overshadowed by the gnarly and massive trees of the training ground.

Anko went over the rules while trying to impress upon the genin how dangerous it was going to be. "There is a real reason it is called the forest of death, after all." She had a very cherubic smile on her face for that pronouncement.

"I'm not even slightly scared," Naruto shouted right back at her.

"You are pretty spirited," the proctor said with the same, totally happy smile, before throwing a kunai at him faster than he could even blink.

Naruto's blue eyes were staring at the dagger only inches away from his cheek.

"You dropped this, Proctor," Sheila said as she tossed the kunai back casually.

"She's on your team, right? You might actually make it out of the forest alive, kid. But its usually the loudmouthed idiots like you that die." Anko then slipped her kunai back up her sleeve before holding out a sheaf of papers. "So you all get to sign these waivers so that if you die, it's not my fault. This is a no-holds-barred scroll battle. You will get either an Earth Scroll or a Heaven Scroll. But you have to end up in the center tower of the forest with both scrolls to pass to the third test. And you have only five days to get there. As the test goes on, you will weaken even as your enemies become more desperate."

Sheila actually nodded at that. That was one way to ensure that only half of the genin passed. She frowned as she heard a couple of ninja from the Land of Rock that were talking behind her a ways off.

"Do you think that is the girl that we were told about?" the almost six-foot tall genin asked. He was huge and muscled, wearing a sleeveless gi.

"She's blonde and doesn't have a clan marker like the other Konoha girl. The other blonde is a Yamanaka, so not likely to be the Fourth's,"

Anko continued on in her explanation, but there really wasn't a lot more to it. Each team was called up and traded their three signed waivers for a scroll and was given a key to a locked gate. Everyone was suspicious of everyone else during this process, and tempers flared over a few confrontations. Each of the twenty-eight teams were led to their gates by a chunin and at exactly 3:30 PM were let inside.

Sheila barely stepped in before making a shadow clone and sending it off with a marked kunai, then turning to the other two members of Team 7. "Are you two ready to battle a team from the Land of Rivers? I planted one of my kunai on one of them before they got their scroll and they won't be expecting a battle so quickly."

"I'm ready," Sasuke declared as he pulled out a kunai.

"Me too!" Naruto boasted, even as he prepared his favorite ninjitsu.

They put their hands upon her shoulder and she made the handsign that completed the Flying Thunder God technique.

Instantly they appeared at the back of the young girl from the Land of Rivers as Sheila removed her kunai from her backpack. The girl River Ninja looked over her shoulder just in time to catch a fist from Sasuke in the cheek and was sent flying.

"Shit! Where the hell did they come from?" the lean and taller 'leader' of the River Ninja genins asked. He barely blocked a kick from Sheila as the third of their trio got swarmed over by a horde of Naruto clones.

Her punch folded him over even as Sasuke dominated in his fight against the female genin thanks to his activated Sharingan. She could barely block the kicks and punches. She tried to throw a handful of powder at him, but the small fireball swept it up and into her face, having her screaming as she tried to desperately tried to put out the fire on her hair.

"That wasn't too tough," Naruto noted as his clones finished up his fight.

"We've got the scroll of Earth to go with our Heaven scroll," Sheila called out, holding up said scroll she pulled off her target. "My shadow clone should have made it to the tower. Are you ready?"

Sasuke let the girl put out her flaming hair, then barely turned in time to avoid a screaming ball of fur that was roughly the size of a dog that had come charging back down a tree at him. His kunai just barely stopped a swipe from its claws.

"A bear cub? How cute!" Sheila replied inanely as the Uchiha swiped at it with a kunai.

"It's trying to eat me!" the dark-haired member of Team 7 snapped out.

The bear suddenly found itself picked up by the scruff of its neck and unable to claw or bite. Sheila gave it a waggle that settled it down.

"Damn, you guys really took us apart. How did you sneak up on us?" the River Ninja girl asked as she backed up. "And don't you dare hurt Pidoki."

"We're basically done. We have your scroll. Unless you think you can take all three of us on?"

The girl did not like her chances there. "No, you got us." She caught her bear cub as it was tossed to her. "Now what?"

"Now we leave you here while we go to the tower." Sheila saw a gleam in her eye and just shook her head. "You aren't going to keep up. You two ready?"

They put their hands on her shoulder and then in a poof of smoke, they disappeared.

"Well, shit. That's not a good start." Itomi of the River said as she put her bear cub down and started to work on waking up her teammates.

* * *

Sheila studied the tower of cut rock in the middle of the towering trees. "Interesting. I wonder what its history is?" Perhaps hundreds of years ago it had overlooked the area, but with the trees you could not even see a mile.

"The place where we proved we are chunin material," Sasuke said simply. "I see an entrance."

They ran up to the opening in the tower and up a set of ragged steps into an interior room.

"Hey, Naruto. It's a competition versus everyone else, right? Why don't you make a lot of trees to cover up the entrance.

"You bet!" the excitable demon-container shouted out. He ran through a few hand signs and made several trees that covered up the entrance. He capped it off with a monster of a tree, over one hundred feet tall.

It was a bit dark inside the room, but the engraved writing on the wall about Earth and Heaven was still quite visible.

"I think I read that it was a saying from the First Hokage," Sheila said as she drudged up the fact from her reading at the Academy library.

"What does it mean?" Naruto asked.

"It's something we already do," she replied. "Earth is physical learning while Heaven is book learning. If you lack in one, make sure to train in it. When you have mastered both, you have mastered Heaven and Earth."

Sasuke nodded. "Your memory is pretty good."

"It's beyond eidetic, actually." Sheila gave them a shrug. "Though I think it is a clue. Now Anko only said to _not _open the scrolls _until_ we reached the tower."

"So let's open them," Sasuke ordered with his own excitement visible in his dark eyes and grim smile.

Naruto and Sasuke rolled out both scrolls.

"They are both summoning scrolls. But what are these parts along the edges? They kinda look like security markers," Naruto noted as they watched the scrolls closely.

"They are interlocked. They summon one person alone and a different person with both the Earth and Heaven scroll," Sasuke noted. His Sharingan eyes had made reading the boring details of fujinitsu a snap.

With a poof of smoke, a chunin from earlier in the day appeared. The young woman looked at the kids, then took in the room. "You have got to be shitting me. The second exam just started and you are already there? How the hell did you get here in _ten minutes?_"

"We're that good?" Sheila asked far too innocently. Naruto started laughing heavily, holding his stomach.

"Dammit. That just blew out the betting pool. No idea who bet on Leaf Ninjas getting there first. Well, I'm Michi Ontomori, a chunin of the Leaf. I'm supposed to explain what the First Hokage's saying on the wall."

"But Sheila already did that," Naruto protested.

Michi closed her dark-eyes as if she were in pain. "Well, you have to stay within the tower until the end of the event." She walked them over to a wall and made a handseal that made an illusion of the wall disappear. "Say, what happened to that door?" the chunin asked as she looked across the main hall to the tree-covered doorway.

"We were defending the position just in case someone was right behind us," Sheila said with a shrug.

"Hmm. Nothing in the rules against that, I suppose. You guys are going to be a right terror, aren't you?"

Sasuke just shook his head. "Going to be?"

* * *

There were just settled into their guest quarters an hour later when Kakashi showed up in a poof. "Yo."

"Hello, Kakashi," Sheila called out from where she was doing one-handed vertical pushups, which both boys were trying to emulate.

"Hmm. We may need to look at some weights. That's really not being that hard for you, is it?"

"How can she- do that-?" Sasuke huffed and puffed where he had given up doing it one-handed and was now trying to continue manfully with both hands.

Naruto had his toes up against a wall and was sweating profusely as he tried to emulate them both.

When Sheila never answered, Kakashi interjected himself. "Well, you three seem to have totally bothered the Proctors. Anko is in a real tizzy and wants to yank you for cheating."

"We cheated _within_ the bounds of the contest. Not our fault our opponents got outmaneuvered so easily," Sheila noted while still continuing her workout.

"So who did you get your second scroll from?" he asked casually.

"The younger River Ninja team. The one with the bear cub and the guy with the full water-mask," the girl of the team provided helpfully. "The bear cub was named Pidoki."

"Well, can't blame you for trouncing a weak team and just blitzing to the end. How did you get to the tower that fast while fighting a team?"

"Sheila sent a clone to the tower with one of her Flying Thunder God kunai," Naruto explained happily. He pulled out his own kunai that was too covered in seal work. "I haven't gotten that far."

Sasuke frowned as he realized something. "Your clone can run ten kilometers in ten minutes?" That was insanely fast, though he had heard of jonin that were faster.

"Yeah, it's not as fast as the real me. I haven't figure out how to get them to really pour on the speed," she replied while still doing her pushups.

"I might have to have you race Maito Gai," Kakashi said casually.

"Really? That could be fun. We could run to the capital and back."

Kakashi nearly shivered as he knew Gai would enjoy that a lot. Wait, the capitol? That was over a hundred miles away. Even Maito might have a problem _racing_ that. "Well, I was just checking in. I'm pretty sure that the newest record for the shortest time to the tower here during a scroll hunt probably won't be broken any time soon."

Naruto was starting to dance around. "Gunna be the Hokage, wahoo! Believe it!"

Sasuke had to resist the urge to facepalm.

* * *

Kankuro was more than happy to see the massive tower that the weird special jonin Anko had mentioned up ahead. "Not soon enough," he muttered. He hadn't seen any of Team Seven the entire trip through the Forest of Death. He opened his eyes as he looked at the decrepit building.

"Search out the entrance. Now that we've have both scrolls, we are done with this stupid test," Gaara declared to his older siblings.

Temari nodded even as she looked over the area. "There's something odd here," she muttered. "Why are those trees not covered in vines?"

"Probably covered in a genjitsu to disguise the entrance," the puppet-user thought aloud.

The Sand Siblings leaped up there, quickly discovering that it was a physical barrier nearly covering the doorway.

"This doesn't make sense. Where did these trees come from?" Temari continued to think aloud.

"It doesn't matter. We're here and we need to finish this to prove that the Hidden Village of Sand is not to be trifled with," the homicidal and youngest kid stated.

They read the (to them) pithy saying on the way and after a few minutes decided on opening their scrolls. Like Team 7 before them, they summoned a chunin.

Iruka Umino blinked the pungent smoke out of his eyes. "Wow, another group already. This year must have a lot of great genin."

"What? What do you mean, another?" Kankuro almost shouted.

"Oh, yeah. I guess a team from Konoha actually made it to the tower over an hour ago," the young chunin admitted as he scratched the back of his head. He had really wanted to be there for Naruto, but had not thought they would get there so quick. In fact, the only reason Macha had been in place to be summoned had been in case of cheaters.

"Which... team?" Gaara almost snarled out as sand began to swirl around him.

"Gaara! We don't want to be disqualified," his older sister called out. Wait a second. Over an hour ago? They were only about an hour an a half into the event! They made it here in less than half an hour?

"Not that it is pertinent to the exam, but they were Team Seven of Konoha. They were actually my students at the academy just six months ago. I can't believe how strong they have become so quickly," the chunin said in pride even as he kept his eye on the very young genin that was leaking a fairly impressive amount of killing intent.

"Those rookies beat us here?" The puppet-user was beyond shocked. He had been ordered to not attend the last Chunin Exam in the Land of Grass last year so that he would not pass accidentally. He and Temari knew they were already chunin level. In fact, they were to be brevetted to chunin rank during the attack on Konoha, with a fast track to special jonin.

"Where do we go now?" the youngest genin present finally asked, looking very upset.

"This way. You have to stay in the tower for the full five days, but other than that you can relax." Iruka led them through the secret entrance and down into the bowels of the tower. They were quickly quartered and shown the public area for preparing their own meals. After that, the chunin disappeared.

Gaara narrowed his eyes as he saw a jonin meander through. Their eyes met for just a moment.

"Yo! You guys are from the Hidden Village of Sand, hmm? Well, good luck on the rest of the exam," the masked eye-patch-wearing ninja said with a little wave before he disappeared in a poof.

"That's Kakashi Hatake. He's in the bingo book as a very dangerous jonin," the older boy stated a bit nervously.

"I don't care," the younger Sand Ninja stated as he walked through the door that the jonin had walked in. Off in the distance, he heard a thud and two voices arguing. He narrowed his demon-marked eyes as he followed the sound to one of the bunk rooms.

"You can come in," a female voice called out. Sheila had been glad that she had put up a sensor-seal in front of the door.

Starting to get unnerved, Kankuro opened the door. "So it's the loudmouth and his team. You guys must be stronger than you look," the oldest of the siblings said.

"You betcha!" Naruto crowed. "I'm going to be the strongest hokage ever!"

"It's a ninja survival trait, after all. Being underestimated at first glance might save your life," the tall blonde girl said, looking eye to eye to Temari.

"So were you added to pad your team's chance in the exam?" the fan-wearing kunoichi asked in a too sweet tone.

"Huh?" Naruto asked.

"They think I'm older than you two, instead of being two months younger," Sheila replied, narrowing her green-blue eyes at the other kunoichi in a challenging manner.

"So were you guys specifically trained by tutors?" Kankuro asked.

"I was. I think Sheila only started training as a ninja within the last year at our academy," Sasuke said as he kept himself limber in case of a fight.

"I'd be a totally awesome ninja if I'd had a tutor," Naruto boasted with a wide grin. "Not that I'm not an awesome ninja. I'd just be more awesome."

Gaara was studying Sheila with narrowed eyes. "You aren't normal. Mother keeps screaming that you should not exist. You are a... hero?"

"A heroine, thanks." How did he know that term, Sheila wondered?

"I want to fight you," the smaller kid suddenly demanded.

"Don't-" Kankuro started to say, then stopped at the murderous glare of his younger brother. Beads of sweat suddenly sprung into existence on his brow.

"Gaara! You don't want to get disqualified," his older sister warned with a worried look on her face.

"I'm game. But without our teams. Just me and you in the practice area that our jonin said we could use in the basement," the scion said to the demon-container. "No outside interference." She gave her two teammates a hard look.

"Are you insane? Gaara will kill you!" Temari almost shouted.

"Or I might be forced to kill him. I'll try not to, but I won't promise anything." She exuded confidence.

The non-challengers just shared a confused, horrified look.

* * *

Sheila frowned as she looked over the five watchers. It appears that the Sand Siblings' (as they were actually family) jonin had not bothered to show up. He only made sure that if Gaara killed her he would not be disqualified from the Chunin Exam. Kakashi on the other hand _was_ here and she would not be able to trick him. "Are you ready?" she asked while seemingly getting the kinks out of her hands. She gave Kakashi a wink as she made three shadow clones that immediately leaped into shadows.

"You should not have bothered with making clones," Gaara said in a bored tone. "It will just weaken you."

"So you say," the Scion of Athena replied as she took out a totally standard kunai, then launched it full force at Gaara.

The kunai slammed into a wave of sand sand, instantly countered. Another kunai was in her hand as she almost glided across the ground nearly as fast as most ninja could run, but with perfect control. That caused the youngest Sand Ninja to frown. With a surge of her legend, she flung her second kunai as supernaturally-hard as she could.

The massive wave of sand erupted to protect Gaara from the much greater threat. The kunai smashed into the four feet of sand was required to stop the projectile, blasting sand everywhere.

"What was that?" Gaara said, still standing there with his hands crossed. The sand swirled back up to him.

Sheila did not bother to reply. Telling your enemy what you are doing just invited looking silly while being defeated. She needed to get rid of the sand. She made some very odd hand signs, then took out a scroll. One of her earlier created shadow clone launched an attack at Gaara.

The kunai was easily blocked, of course. Gaara was looking bored until the real Sheila appeared as the sand was still extended out to defend him, slapping the scroll on the paper and activated the seal painted on it. With a sucking sound, half of his sand was suddenly pulled away from him and into the scroll.

"Only that much? Drat," she complained as she danced back faster than the sand could attack. She tossed the scroll to one of her clones.

Gaara actually showed some emotion finally, looking a bit disturbed and slightly worried. "That's right, you know sealing."

"I've barely started," she admitted to the truth and lied quite convincingly all at the same time.

Kankuro and Temari had leaned forward and were staring at the fight in incredible concentration.

"I don't think I've seen anyone give him this much trouble," the puppet-user admitted to himself. "I mean, look at how he handled Melchiko, that missing ninja of the Stone. That guy was a special jonin and Gaara killed him easily."

"I could take her. I mean, she's fast and somewhat strong, but you can't use seals on a smart opponent," his sister stated with a nasty grin.

Naruto and Sasuke was watching avidly, as Gaara started to cautiously try to probe her defense. But for now, she was too fast and he could not corner her.

"Go Sheila! Smash his ass!" the Konoha demon-container shouted.

"You can't hurt me," the smaller fighter noted. This was going to come down to stamina and staying power, the Sand Ninja decided.

Sheila didn't bother to answer, as she was already working on hampering him some more. She made some more, nonsensical handsigns and then launched a very basic water technique at him that was swatted away as if it were a gnat.

One of Sheila's clone then flew over Gaara's head, causing him to look up right into a bright flare of light. "Agh!" he screamed.

The other four genin were also blinded, covering their eyes. Above them, one of Sheila's clones appeared and started to very silently and quietly make hand seals from her position on the walls.

"That's my flash-bulb technique!" she explained. There, the genjitsu was now active on his other two teammates. "Are you ready to take it up a notch, Gaara?"

Gaara just responded by firing a series of sand shurikan at her, only to see her weave and duck between the attacks as if they were in slow motion. How could she be that fast? He knew Baki could be fast when he needed, but this was pushing things even for a jonin.

That was when she turned and started to make hand gestures at a very fast pace. Two of her clones were doing the same thing. Gaara was suddenly paralyzed and stunned. Sheila immediately threw three kunai from each hand, imparting a supernatural power to their strikes. His sand, though, was _not _paralyzed and blocked the attacks with effort, only to have the clone with the scroll of sealing appear next to the sand protection, sealing away the last of the sand.

"Whoa! That's pretty cool, huh Sasuke?" Naruto exclaimed as he almost danced in place, his fists clenched. He had been thinking in his head how to use his wood techniques and clones.

"Gaara almost got her," Temari suddenly said suddenly, her comment not matching the contest in the slightest.

Sasuke suddenly looked over, seeing their slightly vacant look. A slight bit of movement above them, as a clone of Sheila continued to make hand seals to mold the genjitsu that had the two Sand Ninja layered in illusion and deceit.

"I think I saw part of a seal. It looks like a Two Duological Symbol Seal," one of the two other clones of Sheila stated in English. "That's a lot weaker than I would have used."

"Good. Get ready to undo it," the real Sheila ordered in her native language. "It's a weak enough symbol set that we can undo it entirely."

"Huh, what is she doing?" Naruto said next to Sasuke. "What is she saying?"

"Something tricky, I think. She's got those two under some sort of genjitsu, they think the fight is still going on." Sasuke's eyes were whirling with his immature Sharingan, a single tomoe in one eye while the second had two marks.

"Why didn't anyone tell me genjutsu is so cool," Naruto then grumbled aloud. That would have been perfect for pranking.

Sasuke had to resist the urge to sigh.

A massive seal appeared under Sheila's feet. Kakashi was about to leap down and then stopped himself. "What are you doing?" he asked from his shadow in the doorway.

"I'm stealing an enemies war-weapon that they are planning on using to attack Konoha. If I do it right, he may not even realize that its gone until after they try attacking." She was rapidly going through hand seals as she crafted her Four Triagram Symbol Seal.

At her nod, the nearest clone channeled chakra into the seal on Gaara. She actually underestimated the power that was needed to unlock the seal. With a roar, Shukaku ripped free and crushed the nearest clone, causing her to disappear in a poof of smoke.

"Finally! I'm out of that pathetic bag of flesh! And here's something to kill! Wonderful!" the being of pure chakra said as it started to swell bigger and bigger. Already it was the size of a small truck.

"Wood binding!" the original Sheila shouted.

"Eh? You know the First Hokage's Wood Techniques? That's not possible!" the demonic tanuki screamed as it looked around

The remaining clone tried to create a tree-barrier to capture the One-Tail, but was smashed by its tail as it pierced her and the barrier of trees she was forming.

That was when a massive amount of trees grew up around it. Naruto grunted under the effort as he actually felt a strange chakra flowing down the trees he created and into the ground.

"No! Damn you! I just got free! Why are you freeing me and then capturing me again?" the demon howled in anger.

Sheila was still struggling through the dozens of handseals, channeling her raw legend into the power instead of just chakra. With a roar, the seal started to coalesce on her upper-torso's left side, just above her heart.

The tanuki screamed in rage, smashing out at its new container. Sheila put up her arm to block a wave of hardened sand and felt something crack.

Her concentration wavered, before she latched onto the strands of fate and changed her failure to success, putting everything she could into controlling the demon that was being pulled into her essence seal. She collapsed onto her knees, holding her hurt arm as the demon was swept into herself.

_'Blood! I'll drink your blood and it shall stain my sand and increase my power forever!'_ the demon screamed within her mind, one final time before the gates of the seal slammed shut.

Sheila held her dangling arm with her right arm and looked over at the last clone, still above the other Sand Ninja duo. "You still have them?" At the clone's nod, she released a pent up breath as she stood back to her feet. "Okay. Let me apply a seal that will make that mental voice when he thinks of the demon subconsciously."

Kakashi appeared next to her in a swirl. "You were very lucky. What was the idea behind this stunt?" Somehow, even through his mask, he exuded that he was upset.

"Trickery and treachery. If they think they have their trump weapon to use in their upcoming attack on Konoha, they'll be slightly less cautious. But if we have it, they can't use it against us." Sheila focused a long moment. "Actually, I don't think I can use it either. But it is sealed up." She did a set of twenty-two one-handed seals with her unbroken arm and then touched Gaara's back. "Sasuke, can you carry Gaara and put him in Temari's arms?"

The dark-haired boy nodded, picking up the unconscious Gaara and setting him in her hands.

A gentle nudge from the genjitsu had the duo walking back out the doorway and to their quarters.

"I can't believe it," Kankuro started up as they walked out. "Gaara lost."

"She got pretty beat up, so there's always next time," Temari said sounding surprised anything could beat her younger brother. They wandered off to their rooms, the genjitsu slowly fading so that its effect would not be noticed as it disappeared.

"Sheila, I think the Hokage will want to talk to you about this," their jonin stated. "Wait here."

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed as he kneaded his throbbing forehead. His wrinkles seemed deeper, making him look every day of his quite old self. "Sheila, why did you attack Gaara of the Sand?" He leaned forward to glare at the girl. This was starting to be a recurring theme of their relationship.

Kakashi stood at her side, listening quite closely. For once, his trademark book was nowhere present and he was one-hundred percent focused on the current situation.

"I was neutralizing an enemy agent's war-making ability before they could spring their cowardly surprise attack," she instantly responded, if a bit warily. They were in a small, secure office inside the tower.

"I have half a mind to disqualify you for you premeditated attack. The only reasons I'm not," the Hokage stated harshly, "is that you discovered that Sand is planning to attack Konoha during these exams, led us to several traitors and... showed initiative. Sometimes a leader can not make the best decision, but only the best decision right then." He suddenly slumped backwards in his seat. "I am _very_ impressed that you actually sealed up a Tailed-Beast as a genin. In fact, it is impossible for your age no matter how much of a prodigy you are. What are you? Who do you work for?" The old man suddenly looked every part of the ancient warrior that led his city-state through several wars. "Think very carefully how you answer."

"I'm- half-human, actually." She stared into his dark eyes. "My mother is not. She was a goddess."

He laughed in an ugly, bitter way. "The gods have all been murdered and reside in the lands of darkness and death. Only the legends of their passing and their names exist for such beings. The Ten-Tailed Beast scoured the Earth of their kind Millenia ago."

"Well, I don't think I'm from this world. I mean, the Moon is quite a bit different. And the Elemental Lands do not appear to match any lands. And I've met my mother and mythological monsters. I know they exist," she countered.

"The Moon is different? Did you take into account that it was created to house the body of the Ten-Tailed Beast?"

_"My_ world's Moon was created due to an meteor striking the Earth long ago and splitting it off our planet," Sheila remarked. "Billions of years ago."

"That was the old Moon. The new Moon was created from the shattered remains of the old Moon as the Sage of Six Paths fought the Ten-Tailed Beast. He used the Moon as its prison even as he split the Ten-Tail from its soul and bound the soul in his body.

"And I take this is all oral tradition given I did not come across any books that had that in them," Sheila stated as she would remember reading something like that in a book on myths or history.

"Books on the Tailed-Beasts are not kept in the public library, no."

Sheila looked _very_ unconvinced. "Do you have any ancient artifact from that time?"

Sarutobi nodded. "A few nicknack's, a few trinkets. Things that we can't build or duplicate." He thought a second and then pulled out a strange metal pin. "This is prized because it is known to be very old and of a metal we can not make. Nearly indestructible."

She looked at it for a long moment, looking puzzled. "A titanium steel necktie?" She frowned and looked at it close.

And her world fell out from below her. It looked like a little metal flag. A fairly common item. It may have even been painted at one time. Probably red, white and blue, as it looked like a flag of the United States of America. The only problem is that it had fifty-three stars.

"-no-" She looked at it in a panic. "This can't be. " She turned it over. On the back in micro-letters, it stated simply 'Made in the USA.'

Kakashi caught her as her legs failed. He plucked the little pin from her hands, thinking it had poisoned her. "What? It's just a piece of metal."

"It- It says it is made in the country I was born in. Which should be impossible. Lord Hokage, tell me it is impossible to have summoned me from the past before the Ten-Tailed Beast," she demanded.

"Impossible? I couldn't say. I would have thought it unlikely to pluck you from thousands of years in the past." He studied her a second. "Can you write down a map of your 'world' from before the fall of civilization?"

She shrugged with stooped shoulders and then pulled out a mechanical pencil and on a piece of paper and quickly started sketching an incredibly detailed map. "We are probably in this area here," the Scion of Athena declared, pointing to a small point where a large island sat next to the east coast of the largest landmass.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's face was very, very serious. "Let me borrow your... charcol." A part of his mind absently marveled at the engineering that would be required to make such an intricate device, but then wondered why not cover it up in fancy etching and at least silver? His fingers quickly scribbled huge changes to the islands of Japan.

"When the Moon was destroyed and recreated by the Sage of Six Paths... were the lands ravaged by meteors that fell from the sky that blotted out cities, lands and even made islands in the seas?" she finally asked.

"Indeed. How did you guess that?" the Third Hokage asked as Kakashi listened very intently.

"Because those look like the impact craters of large meteorites. I would hate to think what the rest of the world is like. Her hands were actually trembling.

"Go to your room. I have to think," he ordered. As soon as the girl was gone, he turned to Kakashi. "If what she is telling is the truth... this is matter larger than the Last Uchiha or the Nine-Tailed Demon."

"You believe her?" the jonin asked in surprise.

"Unlike you, I have seen old maps of the world before the Fall of Civilization. Her map is very accurate to the old lands before our Hidden Villages arose. The only gods I know that answer prayers or summons are the Death Gods and they demand horrendous sacrifices. If she is what she says... our village has something unique in the _whole world._"

"Or she could be pulling the biggest scam in existence," the Copy-Cat Ninja noted.

"I doubt it. I mean, _I_ was the one that summoned her accidentally. And there is time and space components to a summoning. I have to really think about this." Hiruzen shook his head finally. "You will be ready to deal with Danzo's ROOT and himself tomorrow? It is time to deal with that fool." How dare he play with the safety of Konoha to bargain for his secret medical desires.

"Of course, Lord Hokage."

* * *

Naruto looked over at Sheila warily. She had come back from a secret meeting looking very morose. She was normally very upbeat and usually just so busy doing or thinking about something, so seeing her just seeing her sit on the edge of the bunk was... disconcerting. Sasuke was keeping an eye on her, too. This was far outside of her normal problem.

"So what is wrong?" Naruto finally exclaimed loudly.

She didn't respond immediately, then finally sat up straighter. "I found out where... and when... I was summoned from. My whole world is gone. There is no return to my homeland. I would not even recognize it anymore."

"That doesn't make a whole lot of sense," the dark-haired genin noted in a flat, unfriendly tone.

"You know I was summoned to Konoha accidentally? It appears I was summoned from the past centuries ago. I have... nothing. I really am an orphan." She sounded so apathetic that even Sasuke looked worried.

"Well, you can always make your home here! I mean, we are the best Hidden Village!" Naruto exclaimed loudly.

Sheila was fighting tears. Abruptly, she stood up, deciding that she was not going to show them her tears here. She walked over to the door just as someone knocked on it. Focusing on a possible danger, she called out, "Hello?"

"I have a message for you guys," Kabuto called out from the other side of the door.

She cracked open the door carefully. "Yes?"

"That silver-haired jonin that wears his head-protector over one eye is your jonin, right?" He smiled smoothly at her nod. "He just asked me to let you know that he wanted to talk to Sasuke on the roof. Wooo. All mysterious, eh?"

"I'll go talk to him," Sasuke promised.

"Thanks!" Sheila said in a suddenly chipper attitude. "So you made it in? And only in about twenty hours. Very good!"

"Not as good as you. How quickly did you make it in?" the older genin asked.

"Oh, about fifteen minutes," Naruto exclaimed proudly as he puffed up his chest.

"Fifteen _minutes_?" Kabuto asked as he tried to process that data. He wasn't sure _he_ could have done this Exam in that short of a time. And he had killed jonin for his true master.

"We marked one of the teams that I overheard had the right scroll at the gate, rushed over there and took them out. They were really weak and from the Land of River. Then we rushed to the tower. I heard the old record was just under four hours and I wanted to see if we would impress the examiner," Sheila explained in a super-smug tone that was totally artificial. In truth, she could not imagine doing it as efficiently as possible. So passing the exam with anything less than her whole will was impossible. It was part of expecting her absolute best out of herself, in competition with everyone _and_ the world.

"Well, you impressed me," Kabuto said. "Well, I've got to get back to my team. One of them is injured and I need to see if I can heal his arm." With that, he waved at them as he smiled, then turned and walked off down the tunnels.

Sheila closed the door and then ran through a dozen hand-signs and put a seal on the door. "I don't think you should go, Sasuke. I'm pretty sure that Kakashi would just pop in himself or would have just told me to get you." She had to figure out a way to convince him without telling him about Kabuto being a traitor. Naruto was not very subtle and would probably do something like glare at Kabuto every time they met.

The Last Uchiha opened his mouth and then thought it over. She was correct, Kakashi had a very annoying tendency to just pop in by himself. "So just ignore it?"

"No, I'll transform into you and try to gather some more information. I can escape easily with my space-time techniques." She tossed him one of her seal-marked kunai. "Hmm. Let me try this." And then suddenly, without a handsign she just morphed into him without changing her outfit. She smiled at that, as she had been working on her godly shape-changing powers for a while. "Sasuke, do you have a spare shirt? For the disguise." It was nothing compared to Zeus's power, of course. She could barely transform into a close copy of a person.

"Feh. Fine," he replied as he reached into his small backpack and pulled out his single, spare tunic with the Uchiha crest on the back.

"How about you go track down Kakashi, Naruto? Just don't follow me immediately, so give me a minute or two. Sasuke, I'd suggest you stay here under a henge. No one would _ever_ suspect you if you pretended to be Naruto or myself."

Sasuke nodded. There was no way he'd ever want to hedge to look like Naruto. That thought stopped him for a second. It would be the perfect disguise. But all that orange. And that stupid smile. "I'll think about it."

The fake Sasuke walked off, a set expression on his face as 'he' headed to the roof of the tower. She was itching for a fight to get her mind of her bad news.

Naruto stepped out just a minute later. "Doh! I'm an idiot. I'll just send a dozen clones to look for Kakashi and follow Sheila myself." With a hand-sign of a cross, he created a slew of shadow clones. "You know what to do, but try to be casual."

* * *

Sheila, in the form of Sasuke, finally opened the trap door to the roof of the stone tower and leaped up to land on the roof. She called out (in his voice still) "Kakashi?" She even added a bit of churlish anger to the voice.

"I'm sorry, but Kakashi is not here," a silky, almost slimy, voice replied as rock moved to cover the doorway.

"Who are you?" she asked the Grass Ninja genin.

"I'm afraid it doesn't matter," the golden-eyed woman said, an insane smile on her face, barely visible under her straw hat.

An incredible killing aura suddenly erupted from her, slamming against Sheila's psyche. The girl that looked like Sasuke nearly collapsed to her knees. "Horrible," she muttered.

"Yes, show me your power, Uchiha. I wish to test you." The killing intent from the Grass Ninja spiked to levels that would drive a mere genin insane.

"I am better than you think," the fake 'Sasuke' said. "I will fight, I will not lose and you will not get what you desire today." The last was almost shouted as Sheila pulled on her will to bolster her stubbornness and fighting spirit. Her valor ignited and suddenly the killing intent might as well have not existed.

"Oh, really?" the strange woman said.

"Really." Sheila charged forward, her short, black hair fluttering behind as she lashed out in a kick that the ninja had to block.

"That was remarkably powerful for a genin." The golden and slit-eyed woman charged forward, planting a strong punch in 'Sasuke's stomach, sending Sheila tumbling.

Sheila responded with a grand fireball right at him, hot enough to melt a small amount of rock. Instantly, the disguised scion had a kunai out and charged forward.

"You can't defeat me. I'm surprised you can even fight me. It must be your eyes... somehow," the woman said greedily.

Sheila put her everything into this next slice, her legend thrumming through her body as her body moved so fast... it was perfection. And even then, she nearly missed the ninja she fought.

The Grass Ninja held her hand up to her face that had been badly cut. "How can a mere genin be that good?"

A subtle use of her shape-shifting power changed her eyes, two tomoe in each one showing. "My eyes see your death. You should have known that, coming after me," she bluffed carefully. The Grass Ninja must be a ringer, a chunin sent to deal with the last Uchiha. She could win this, she was sure _even_ as she failed to realize her bravery was too amplified by her powers of war.

"Yes, those eyes. The Sharingan... it is such a lovely thing, isn't it?" she replied covetously. Her hand went up to her face before ripping off her whole face.

"Now isn't that interesting. Who are you?" 'Sasuke' asked after seeing a man's face underneath the discarded flesh-mask. That was quite disgusting, though from the smell of blood probably hard on whoever they were using. Something like a skin-walker, she thought. Pretty vile stuff indeed.

"I am Orochimaru. Ku ku ku," he replied even as his fingers blurred through seals faster than she thought they could and spewed out a wave of mud at her. There was no way the mere genin could not end up sinking into the mud and being trapped.

Except 'Sasuke' flipped over the mud and then charged forward on the surface that should have just swallowed the combatant up to their neck.

"Shadow Clone Technique!" Naruto shouted out as he leaped up from the side of the tower. The roof was suddenly crowded in orange-jumpsuited figures. Several got sucked into the mud and popped while most of them spread out.

"Naruto! I told you to go find the real Kakashi," Sheila (in Sasuke's voice) shouted angrily.

Orochimaru flashed through another set of seals, spitting out a huge burst of wind at them. Sheila and Naruto both had to grip the rooftop with their tree-walking technique, but the wind was too violent and popped all of the clones.

"My clones!" the young demon-container shouted. "Well, I have more techniques than that!" He then spat out small fireball. "Crap! That wasn't as big as it should be."

Sheila wasted no more time, throwing a kunai as hard as she possibly could. But the Sannin was took quick avoiding it by inches. Over a hundred feet away, a tree exploded behind him from the force of the attack. "Hmm? Some sort of explosive kunai? You're pretty violent. I'm quite impressed. But you don't have enough power to fight me off," he boasted as he rushed forward.

"Right! Explosive tags time!" Naruto shouted as the disguised genin dodged for everything she was worth, looking nearly boneless in her movements. He pulled out ten tags even as he made the handsign for the shadow clone technique again. He quickly handed out the tags. "You know what to do!"

With a roar, they all charged the Snake Sannin who just chuckled. The explosion could be heard for miles, waking all the genin still in the test and terror into their hearts. Naruto was pumping his fists, almost like a victory dance when a tongue wrapped around his neck from behind.

"Ewwwww, that's gross," a very out of character 'Sasuke' said.

Orochimaru slammed a fist into the back of Naruto's head in a move that would kill most people. "One nuisance out of the way." He tossed Naruto out of the way and off the edge.

The fake Sasuke made a strange pointing gesture, healing Naruto of all of his blunt trauma wounds as he flew through the air. "You are no genin. And I'm starting to think you are no Grass Ninja either," she noted even as she spat out a lightning bolt that Orochimaru just flexed out of the way and continued walking forward.

"Indeed, but I hear some annoying insects coming to interfere-" the Sannin was saying when Naruto came back over the edge of the tower, trailing dozens of clones that had helped throw him back to the top.

"We're not done!" he shouted angrily, his eyes glowing red. He was now much, much faster and his hands had turned slightly bestial with claws.

"What!" the villain asked, barely dodging Naruto as he plowed a ten foot crater into the roof with his fist. "Ku ku ku. So this is the demon container. Does Sasuke know what you are?"

"My team knows... and doesn't care, dirt bag!" The demon-container charged at Orochimaru, plowing a fist right through him, only to blink in shock as he realized he had destroyed a mud clone. "Crap!"

Orochimaru tried to snag the demon container with his tongue from behind again, but had to dodge out of the way as the fake Sasuke appeared, slicing with a short ninjato. Six inches of the tongue flopped on the ground.

"Orochimaru, surrender or die," a very angry sounding Kakashi called out. His Sharingan eye was revealed even as he gathered lightning chakra around his clenched hand. "ANBU and all jonin are on their way."

"This is so annoying. I was supposed to find you alone and helpless in the woods," the Sannin complained. "Then I find out you broke the Fourth Hokage's record to getting here. And he broke our team's record." He sounded very petulant and upset, but not really worried. The Snake Sannin's mouth suddenly opened wide, spitting out a sword that cut Naruto's shoulder, spraying blood. A mere moment later, a massive wind technique then blew the the hapless demon container into the woods below. "Think fast, Kakashi... your genin is dying of poison and might be prey to the other genin. I'll make it easier for you." He smiled, looking quite reptilian for a moment. "I promise to not kill Sasuke here on purpose."

"Go. I'll be fine," the fake Sasuke called out.

The Copy-Cat Ninja almost growled, but disappeared in a swirl of leaves as the lightning technique faded away.

"I think it is time to leave," Sheila said as she finally realized how overly-brave she had been. She then started to make her hand seals when her hands were suddenly snatched up by the far superior foe.

"Uh uh uh! No more techniques for you!" Orochimaru then grinned as he broke three of her fingers on each hands. His head suddenly lunged for her neck, biting down. "Come to me when you want more power. I'll be waiting for you."

With that, he let the fake-Sasuke slump forward. He swished away and into the forest just before Kakashi returned with Naruto cradled in his arms.

"Stupid. I'm so stupid," she muttered as her form melted back into her normal blonde self. Her broken fingers tried to press against her neck. "Nartuo- fine- ?" she stuttered as whatever she had been injected with started to overcome her supernatural resistance.

"I need to get him to a medicine ninja immediately. He's been poisoned and has several broken bones," the jonin snapped out. How could he fail his own teacher this way?

"Can help- cure poison-" She gathered her valor within, forced by its imperative to save him. She would save her teammate. She would!

Even as the poison disappeared from within Naruto, she crashed to her face with her eyes rolled up into her head.

* * *

"How are they?" Kakashi asked the medical ninja.

The young woman shook her head as she looked over the two figures on the bed. "Her body is struggling with this evil consuming seal. She may well burn her body out, but I _think_ that if she lives to morning, she will be fine. _He_," she almost snarled, "is healing fine. I set his bones and they seem to be mending fine. Give him a week and he will be back to light duty."

"You had better be careful. They both have ANBU guards, so no _accident_ had better happen." His one eye was glaring at her hard.

The medic ninja nodded carefully, the left the room. The jonin created a shadow clone to go talk to Sasuke who was wondering what had happened. Then he ran the distance to the Hokage's Tower in Konoha as fast as he could.

"How bad is it, Kakashi?" Sarutobi asked as he looked up from his paperwork.

The masked jonin stared calmly at him for over a minute. The Hokage narrowed his eyes and then called out, "Perimeter sweep, make sure there are no spies," he called out to his ANBU bodyguards. As they took off to discretely remove the spies in the area, he nodded to Kakashi.

"Don't forget the Hyuga receptionist down on the floor level," Kakashi called out. He waited another five seconds. "Orochimaru put his seal on Sheila. The same one that Anko barely survived. The medics think she'll pull through if she survives until morning."

"The seal might only have a one in ten chance of survival normally, but he has probably improved it since then and the girl is not a typical specimen. How is Naruto?" he asked after the boy he felt was his grandson in all but name.

"He's fine. Sheila cured him of poison with a wave of her hand before she collapsed." Kakashi shrugged at that. "I _think_ I might be able to duplicate some of what she did, as I had Sharingan active."

The Hokage nodded. "If you can, teach it to the medics. Konoha's ability to counter poisons has always been one of our strengths. So will they be able to be part of the preliminaries?"

"Its too early to say, but I expect that I'll be surprised on Friday."

"Good." Sarutobi had _plans_ for that preliminary set of matches.

* * *

Sheila suddenly sat up in her hospital bed after a long night of fighting the poisonous effect of the cursed seal, the marks across her body retreating back to her neck. She took heaving great breaths of air until she could get control of it. "O-Okay, that really sucked," she said to the mostly empty room.

"So why did you keep fighting him? I thought the plan was to find out who was looking for Sasuke then retreat?" Naruto asked grumpily from his bed behind a curtain.

"I... screwed up. And one of the things I did kind of amplified my thoughts on what I felt I could defeat. That's a nasty cut on your shoulder and broken leg," she said as she looked at his foot.

"Yeah, the medics don't think I'll be able to be ready for the end of the second exam. Dammit," he almost shouted.

"Well, with the rate you normally heal plus a _little_ help, you'll be fine. Erm, it has only been a day, right?" Sheila asked as she channeled legend to heal his most grievous wounds. "Feeling better?"

"Um, wow. Did you do that?" Naruto asked as he suddenly only felt beaten up, no longer broken and battered.

Sheila stood up as the door opened up and admitted a medic ninja. "You should be back in bed," the woman called out.

"I'm okay enough, I think. I heal fast. And Naruto is ready to have his cast removed," Sheila explained as she started to stretch. "Ouch? What's that?" she poked at her neck which felt smooth.

"That's a curse seal that you were inflicted with. If you survived it, I guess you'll be all right for now. There's no way that _you_ are ready to have your cast removed." The medic moved over to run her glowing palm over Naruto's leg that was in a cast. "Except you are..." She just stared at him in shock.

"Thanks for healing me, Sheila! That was awesome!" Naruto shouted as he hopped out of bed, almost tripping because of his cast.

"She did that? How? When?" the medic asked.

"Just now. Man, that's really cool! I'm going to be so ready for the third exam! You better believe it."

That was when Sasuke entered. And then he stopped to stare at them both. Sheila because she was getting out of bed and Naruto because he was tangled up in the sheets laying on the ground. "I thought you two were supposed to stay in bed?"

"Why? We're going to be fine," the young girl argued.

"You are both nuts, you know that?" Sasuke said with a shake of his head.

With a poof of smoke, Kakashi appeared. "Yo."

"Hey, Kakashi! When do we get to leave the tower?" Naruto yelled out quickly.

"Not until all five days are up. So you still have three days. You two head to your room. Sheila, I need to talk to you."

Sasuke frowned at that. It had to be another secret about last night. All he had gotten out of Kakashi had been that Sheila had been attacked and Naruto had been wounded trying to help her. "Fine." He dragged Naruto out.

"Hey, I'm wounded here!" the blond-haired boy complained.

After the door was closed, the jonin spoke up. "We have a problem. That seal that Orochimaru put on your neck is very bad news. The fact that you survived it is welcome, but you are going to have problems controlling your chakra and emotions."

"So how do I remove it?" she asked. When he didn't answer, she frowned and narrowed her eyes. "There's _nothing_ you can do about it?"

"I can seal it so that you would have to actively draw upon the seal-"

"All right, let's do that. I'm going to need a mirror to study this thing, too," she mused aloud.

"Take off the gown. I need to inscribe a _lot_ of runes," Kakashi informed.


	3. Finishing the Chunin Exam

It was the morning of the sixth day and everyone was finally gathered. Sheila studied all of the teams from Konoha. The four rookie teams had all made it, though Team 11 (Ami and Omo) looked quite beaten, but still game. Team 10 looked nearly as bad. Shikamaru was studying everyone as Team 7 was.

"Team 8 made it, too!" Naruto crowed. "Hinata looks a bit banged up, but Shino looks totally cool as an ice cube."

"Team Gai is here and they look pretty fresh," Sasuke noted. In fact, he thought he'd seen them on the fourth day in the tower. "Kabuto and his team are here, too."

"I'm more interested in that team from Sound and the one from Stone," Sheila said as she stretched her fingers while studying that team. The oldest genin looked totally confident and held himself very well, she thought.

A quiet cough reached out and caught all of the genin's attention. The Third Hokage stood on a side platform in front of an abstract sculpture of a fist and hand, several special jonin at his side. "Welcome potential chunin. I congratulate you for making it so far. Indeed, there are many fine genin here today. Now that you have made it this far, it has become time to explain certain things to you."

The wizened looking man's gaze turned hard. "From here on you will be tested on your own merits, not just as part of a team. The final exam will be single combat. In this manner will you show the strength of you village and people." His dark eyes seemed to bore into theirs. "You will reveal your powers and strength to the world here, so that they may judge you and your village. What you do here will shake the ninja world, so judge carefully. For you actions are part of the proxy war that has been codified since the Third Ninja War."

"What?" Temari the blonde sand ninja called out in consternation. "What do you mean? I thought this was just an exam to become genin."

"Indeed it does, but it also displays the strength of the village. Many important people will be at the Third Exam to witness your strength... and base that on their decision on who to hire. A weak village will find that their normal customers will have lost their confidence and seek to take their business to those they feel can succeed. So the rise and fall of your village lays its seeds here."

One of the special jonin coughed. "Lord Hokage, if I may take over for a bit? To explain this little bit?" Gekko Hayate stood up, coughing again. "I will be the Proctor for this elimination round."

"What?" Rock Lee and Sakura both shouted out in shock.

"It can not be helped, unfortunately, as there are just far too many of you. This would cause a lot of problems in the finals. So we will be cutting your numbers down in at least half right here. Those of you that don't feel you can continue can bow out at this point and it won't penalize your team."

There was a groan from most of the genin. Sheila noted that Gaara did not appear to be phased, so did not _seem_ to have noted the loss of his tailed beast. A preliminary round where he might draw upon its power... might reveal the loss and rework their battle plans.

"Proctor, I would like to bow out," Omo Hajima of Team 11 called out. "I can barely feel my right arm and I'm seeing triple."

"Sakura, you better win your match," Ami Yojimo said to the other girl of Team 11. She bowed her head. "I'm bowing out too. I don't have any chakra and I can barely stand."

One of the Stone Ninja raised her hands. "Proctor, I'm bowing out too. I've got a broken hand and three cracked ribs."

"Anyone else?" Gekko asked. When no one else did, he nodded and made a gesture to someone out of sight.

An electronic board was lowered over the statue from a hidden panel in the ceiling. It started making a buzzing sound, like some sort of demented slot machine as two names appeared.

**Sasuke Uchiha vs. Kiba Inuzuka**

"Awesome! I get to prove that I'm better than Mr. I'm-too-cool Uchiha!" Kiba yelled out, looking quite pleased. Akamaru barked happily at his feet.

"Feh, like that is even conceivable," Sasuke shot right back. He shouldn't even have to use anything fancy.

Everyone retreated from the lower level as the Hokage sat on the sidelines. "Anko, would you be so kind as to invite Baki of the Sand and Kurotsuchi of the Rock to sit with me?"

Anko actually blinked at that. "Uh, right." She body flickered over to Baki, then Kurotsuchi as Kiba charged at the top male genin of their graduating class.

"Here I come! You better have practiced a lot or I'm going to pulverize you," the tracker stated gleefully, his fist hitting the ground with a dull thud, cracking the rock floor he'd hit.

"That was so slow, I didn't even need to use the Sharingan. I guess all those early morning practices while waiting for Kakashi weren't a waste. Of course, fighting Sheila and Naruto is actually a challenge," the dark-haired and dark-eyed boy replied with a cold grin on his face.

Akamaru barked and then growled, only to cringe as Kiba got kicked hard enough to fold him over and send him a good twenty feet closer.

"Shit, when did you get that good?" Kiba asked as he held his stomach.

"Well, since this is a preliminary, I don't have to show off right now," the Last Uchiha said, charging forward. At the very last moment, he ducked a kunai strike that Kiba had palmed and then slapped his little partner into unconsciousness. With a fast scoop, he picked up the puppy and then held him up like he was getting ready to throw him. "Are you ready to give up? You and your partner just aren't ready to be chunin yet."

"If you hurt him, I'll rip you to pieces!" Kiba shouted.

"I guess that's your answer-"

"Wait! Dammit. Fine, you win, you bastard. Just don't hurt him," the Inuzuka boy shouted.

"Proctor?" Sasuke called out.

"Winner: Sasuke Uchiha!" Gekko called out. He wondered if the last Uchiha really would have killed the puppy. He looked like it, but then again lying was a ninja trait.

Up in the balcony, the 'jonin' from Sound was frowning as he tried to figure out why Sasuke did not appear to have his mark from his curse seal.

Hiruzen smiled at the two visiting jonin. "Well, I have to say that was rather brisk. It appears Sasuke has become quite strong. He did not even have to use his Sharingan."

Baki just shrugged. "It's just a tool. And he's just a genin, Lord Hokage." He kept his face very passive as the next two genin were called up.

**Hinata Hyuga vs. Ino Yamanaka**

"He showed good judgment and used the Inuzuka's sentimentality against him. That's actually pretty savvy for a genin," the jonin from the Land of Earth said with a tight smile. "So are you wanting to pass an unofficial message to my grandfather, old monkey?"

"Whatever gave you that idea? I'm just an old man being polite to two visiting jonin from the other major villages that had their teams make it to the Third Exam. A pity there are so many that we have to have a preliminary," the Hokage said aloud as he studied the two girls chatting for a moment before starting their fight.

"I'm more interested in how three genin cheated to be the first there. I mean, _some_ cheating is to be expected, but under an hour for the first ones there?" Kurotsuchi asked, her dark eyes studying the two girls. In her eyes, neither was quite ready for chunin, but at least they showed themselves to be better than that pack from six month ago.

"Well, as Sheila told the proctor, they did cheat _within_ the bounds of the exam. I think this record will probably last a very, very long time. Unless they have to go through the exam again. They can probably shave even more time off, I'm sure." Hmm. The young Hyuga heiress was taking the vain Yamanaka apart like a cheap watch. It appears the blonde had not taken her taijitsu practice nearly as seriously.

"What was the time? All I got from my team is that one of your teams was there before them," Baki asked casually.

"I think we clocked it at nine minutes a fifty-four seconds," the Hokage replied casually as he started to clap at Hinata Hyuga's win.

Both visiting jonin dropped their decorum for just a moment, letting their shock show.

"And you still say they only cheated within the exam? Which means they cheated on the other genin?" Kurotsuchi said slowly. "That's very impressive."

Baki bit the inside of his lip. This was a subtle warning, but warning against what? "It looks like the next pair is up," he said casually as he studied the Stone Ninja jonin from under the cover of his half-obscurring turban.

**Sakura Haruno versus Tenten of the Leaf**

"I hope you've been practicing your skills," the slightly older girl called out, even as she started tossing kunai, frowning as the girl blocked them with decent skill.

Sakura let the kunai fall onto her pinky with its ring, quickly going through five hand-seals, then tossing her kunai at Tenten who blocked it casually.

"What was that?" Tenten said while glaring at the pink-haired girl.

"Um, you aren't itching?" Sakura faked looking worried as her forehead beaded in sweat as she worked to control her strongest genjitsu.

"If itching is your best shot, you deserve to go back to the academy," the bun-haired girl said as she started to seriously throw weapons at the other girl, seemingly nicking and cutting her. This should only be a matter of ten minutes to win at this rate.

"Interesting. Haruno is not a Konoha ninja clan, is it?" the Sand Ninja jonin said as he studied the fight closer. "She's being tricky. But will it just get her egg on her face?"

"That is a good question," the Hokage admitted.

Tenten felt totally in charge of the battle, wearing the younger girl down. Finally she stood over the bleeding, unconscious form of the pink-haired girl. "Well, that was pathetic. And I never did feel an itch."

Sakura suddenly struck from her supposedly unconscious state, jabbing two needles in the other girl's legs. "Finally got you," Sakura said wearily as she stood up, looking very tired. "I didn't think you were ever going to run out of weapons to throw at me."

"I've got a lot more, actually," the bun-haired girl snarled as she trembled ineffectively.

"Is that before of after the paralysis toxin renders you unable to- continue?" Sakura asked as she stood up and held a kunai to Tenten's neck with only the barest trace of her hand shaking. "Proctor, she's paralyzed and can't fight. I could even kill her."

Gekko waited ten seconds, then nodded. "Win is Sakura Haruno."

Tenten wanted to scream, to rage that she was defeated by such a stupid trick.

"Good fight, Tenten." And with that, Sakura's eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed bonelessly.

"She had better chakra control than I expected from a genin," Baki admitted to the Third Hokage and Kurotsuchi.

The short-haired jonin from the Land of Earth nodded slowly. "She's probably not quite there, but she's one of the rookies right out of your academy, right?"

"Oh, now this could be interesting," Hiruzen said blandly as the next contest was announced.

**Rock Lee vs. Neji Hyuga**

"Yosh! I will finally get to prove that hard work overcomes genius!" the bowl-cut haired bow shouted in glee as he landed in the center of the arena.

Neji landed right next to him as the Proctor explained the rules again. He almost glared at his teammate. "You realize you are going to lose, correct? It is your fate."

"I'll prove to you that fate can be overcome with guts and determination!" Lee almost shouted, pumping his fist.

"Start," Gekko said as he realized both of them weren't listening. He coughed as they charged at each other.

Lee started off with his fastest punch he could throw with all of his weights on, but changed his target as Neji jabbed at him with his right hand, his Byakugen fully active. The knife hand missed, but it had been a feint as the Hyuga genius spun under Lee's elbow that would have taken his head off. His left hand speared out and blocked a major tenketsu on Lee's hip.

"This is over. Your fate is sealed. You should have taken off your weights to even have a chance," Neji declared even as he pushed the offensive. "You are within the range of my divination."

The sixty-four palm triagam divination was a symphony of pain as more and more hits piled on. Lee was soon laying on his back, unable to move as blood leaked from his lips.

"Proctor, declare my win." Neji folded his hands into his kimono sleeves, looking every bit the regal noble he felt he should have been.

"Winner, Neji Hyuga."

Kurotsuchi nodded. "It appears you have an up and coming Hyuga again, Third. And a member of the branch, so he'll actually get to do missions."

"Sadly, Lee will have to work even harder," the Hokage said, even as Baki just stared impassively, as if he did not care.

**Naruto Uzumaki versus Kabuto Yakushi**

The blond demon-container glared at the bespectacled boy.

"My, this is unusual. I actually get to fight before the rest of my team," Kabuto said with a smile on his face, as he tried to figure out how he was going to lose this fight convincingly enough. Being _in_ the finals would not work out well, after all.

"Well, I still don't trust you," Naruto shot back. "Like Sheila said, you are probably setting up some of us rookies to take a fall."

Gekko coughed. "Are you both ready? Then begin."

"Multi-shadow clone!" Naruto shouted out, creating an even two dozen clones. "Let's do it!" They charged forward in an orange wave.

Kabuto shrugged and sent out a fairly basic attack that should have overwhelmed the boy, only for the first clone counter by grabbing the punch and twisting around it. "What?"

Naruto was much, much better than the spy had heard, as weeks of training with Sheila and Sasuke in the morning had required him to overcome his own limitations. They had been working with his style. Somehow he had even hammered in a rudimentary teamwork between his clones as he sent wood techniques at Kabuto between his shadow-clones.

Kabuto _could_ have defeated this at his best, but at his fake level, actually didn't have to fake too hard being defeated.

"Wow, I guess he really did suck," Naruto exclaimed five minutes later over the unconscious body bound up in a tree he had made with his wood release. "Wahooo!"

"That was _Naruto?_" Shikamaru asked in slack-jawed amazement. "Asuma, this is amazingly bad. He's the _loser_ of that team."

The jonin of Team 10 was watching that with slack-jawed amazement also. "The First Hokage's power? I'd heard the Senju Clan had revived recently, but I had thought it a stupid rumor."

"Well, at least we don't have to fight him right now," Choji said with happy cheer.

Kurotsuchi and Baki stared at that. "The First Hokage's wood technique?" the young, female jonin asked in a strangled voice.

"Yes, it appears that it has been revived and is being perfected. Konoha's newest generation is really quite amazing, aren't they?" the Hokage said with whimsy.

The Stone Ninja gulped carefully as she understood _that_ message. Konoha was not weak, no matter what the other villages thought.

Baki on the other hand was staring at the demise of their attack. "So it's become a real bloodline? I didn't think there were that many Senju left."

"Not that many, but I think they will be quite popular in the future," the old man replied with a chuckle. "Ah, here we go with your Gaara of the Sand."

**Gaara of the Sand versus Potochi of the Stone**

While they had been talking, Gaara of the Sand and Potochi of the Stone were facing off against each other.

Gaara was watching the young genin from the Land of Stone closely, leaving nothing to chance. Losing once this last week had terrified him, though he dared not show that. The thin fourteen year old Potochi threw away another three kunai, only to see Gaara's sand block them effortlessly.

"Well, I guess I'll have to step it up a notch," Potochi said as he went through a set of hand seals, then spat a stream of mud at the other boy. Another wave of sand blocked the attack instantly.

"You are nothing," the younger boy said. "Mother is screaming for you blood... so you have to die now." With that, he sent three different streams of sand at the Stone ninja.

The young Rock ninja flipped over backwards to dodge the first stream, skidded sideways for the second one and leaped over the third easily... only for the first stream of sand to come up from behind him and slam him into the ground.

"Pathetic," the young Sand ninja declared with his arms still folded on his chest. With a cracking sound as his sand twisted the boy, Gaara broke both legs and one of Potochi's arms. The young Rock ninja started screaming as blood started staining his deep maroon uniform.

"I-give-I-give-I-give-" the young man babbled out as his foe gave him a moment of respite.

"Winner by forfeiture... Gaara of the Sand-! Hey, he quit!" Gekko Hayate called out.

Gaara just sneered as the sand suddenly shot up to surround Potochi. "Sand coffin-"

_FLASH!_

Between one second and another, Potochi disappeared from within the deadly sand attack even as Kurotsuchi appeared with a kunai at Gaara's neck. Sheila had the mangled Stone genin in her grasp, far across the room.

"You won, genin. Finish your attack at your peril-," the dark-haired woman started to order, only to realize what she had seen as she had body-flickered over to Gaara. "The Flying Thunder God technique? There really is a new Yellow Flash of Konoha?"

Baki felt his stomach fall to his toes. "That can't be a genin."

Hiruzen Sarutobi just smiled. "Actually, she really is. At least until the finals, where I'm sure she will do a very fine job and get promoted to chunin. Unless you think we should just make her chunin right now?"

Kurotsuchi released Gaara who was looking at Sheila a little wildly himself. "So Konoha has hidden the Fourth's heir..."

The rest of the genin up on the second level.

"Asuma, can I quit now?" Shikamaru asked in a deadly serious tone. "That is way _beyond_ troublesome."

Neji's eyes had missed nothing as he had watched the fight that had been interrupted so spectacularly. "So that is the power of the newest Rookie of the Year?" he said to himself.

Temari swallowed even as she looked over at her team mate. "You have to fight that?"

Sheila finished sedating Potochi, then quickly set his limbs as two medic ninja dashed up. With a rush of legend, she turned all of his critical wound to just a severe beating. "He should be fine in a few days."

"Kid, we're the medics here. We'll take over." His hand started to glow green.

She just shrugged and flickered back over to the second level stand.

"Whahoo! That was awesome, Sheila!" Naruto shouted loudly. "I'm so looking forward to facing you in the finals."

Sasuke agreed with that sentiment, sharing a quick (though hard) smile with Naruto. Behind them, Choji and Shikamaru were looking at them like they were lunatics.

"Actually, Shikamaru, depending on how you fight someone who is stronger than you can tell you a lot about how ready they are to be chunin," Asuma Sarutobi said as he lit up an omnipresent cigarette. "Looks like it is your turn, Choji."

**Choji Akimichi versus Shino Aburame**

The big Akimichi nodded as he followed Shino Aburame down to the cleared out hall through the dark set of stairs.

"You do realize that you are over-matched and unprepared to face me?" Shino asked as if he were merely asking Choji about the weather. "The outcome of this match is already decided."

"We'll see about that," the chubby boy stated grimly. He had always won more than he lost against Shino in the academy, so he didn't expect this to be any different.

Five minutes after the proctor started the fight, he was rethinking his plans. Shino had been more than happy to fight him on even terms, so he had not felt any compunction to use his family style, but the other boy seemed unworried and not very tired at all, while Choji was still feeling the effects of fighting through the forest. "Multi-Size Technique!" he called out, suddenly inflating into an almost ball. He wouldn't be able to keep it up, as his chakra was shockingly low.

Shino leaped onto a wall to avoid being run over by the 'human meat-tank', seemingly unworried.

Choji rolled back and away before collapsing. "What's wrong?"

"Did you wonder how you came to this situation? You lost before the fight even started, as I had put my friends upon you as we walked down the stairs," Shino explained. "They have been slowly devouring your chakra while hidden under your jacket." He suddenly rushed forward and then punched out the staggering boy.

"Sneeeeea-ky," the blond demon-container noted. "I like it."

"It's always the quiet ones," Sasuke replied while nodding slightly.

**Temari of the Sand versus Zaku Abumi**

The next fight of Temari of the Sand versus Zaku Abumi of the Sound was very humiliating for Sound. The dark-haired boy's air blasts looked very impressive, but the Sand ninja's use of her mastery of wind techniques to just deflect the air blasts trumped the relatively straightforward body augmented attacks.

Though she _did_ have to unveil two moons upon her fan. She left the crumpled form of Zaku up against the wall with a definite swagger. "You weren't even a good warm up."

Shikamaru really looked pained at the way things were turning out.

**Shikamaru Nara versus Dosu Kinuta**

"Well, this isn't too bad," the slacker of the Rookie Twelve said as he realized that he did not have to fight the really dangerous genin that were left.

Dosu's one eye that was visible underneath all of the gauze bandages did not show any worry. "Well, at least I'll make it to the finals."

"This is such a drag," the scion of Nara clan said as he cricked his neck.

Both of them listened to Gekko Hayate again as the Proctor explained the rules. The genin from Sound lashed out the moment that Gekko started the fight, trying to overwhelm with its suddenness. Shikamaru just leaned to the side and then snapped his head back. The Nara continued his movement, rolling into a backflip that snapped a kick into Dosu's face.

"You're quicker than I thought," the genin from Sound noted.

Shikarama just shrugged, even as he dodged farther back, already noting that his opponent was trying to get into close with him. So his sound technique to rupture eardrums was strictly short range. Two kunai appeared in his hands as he tossed them with quick flick.

Dosu grumbled to himself as he blocked one attack on his gauntlet and had to duck low to avoid the other.

The fight went like this as Dosu tried to get close while Shikamaru kept his distance as best as possible.

"Well, I suppose that's it," the smartest member of Team 10 said as he finished the hand signs for his family technique as he spun around a pillar at the edge of the fighting area and almost under the balcony. "I'm almost out of chakra."

"Good, that means we can stop this farce- What? I can't move?" Dosu asked, suddenly very worried.

Shikamaru judged the distance between him, Dosu and different parts of the surroundings. "You fell into my trap. Shadow Imitation Technique, success." He took half a step and then with threw himself, feeling the hair on his top-knot brush the pillar he had been behind.

The sound of Dosu's head hitting the pillar next to him signaled that he had successfully knocked out the opponent. "How bothersome." Now he was in the finals and would have to fight one of the monsters of Team 7. Or Gaara. Or that big genin from the Land of Earth.

Troublesome.

**Kankuro versus Yoroi Akado**

"You seem to have a good batch of genin this year, Jonin Baki," the third hokage noted idly as the older genin from Konoha moved quickly into melee with the war-painted genin from Sand.

"Yes, all of them are quite good."

"I'm surprised you're the only jonin here for them," Kurotsuchi said casually from the other side of the Hokage. "I mean, all three of the Kazekage's children on one team to take their chunin exam? I don't think I've ever heard of that happening."

"Well, he is a strict father." Baki frowned, his mind far more on the words of the 'old monkey' than they were on Kankuro fighting the Leaf genin.

That changed when Kankuro dropped like a puppet with its strings cut when the Leaf genin tried to drain its chakra.

"Oh, so you are in that bundle?" Yoroi said as he suddenly dashed towards the abandoned bundle that unraveled from all of its gauze bandages.

That took too long, as Yoroi's hands gripped his shoulders and then him down into a rising knee to his stomach. The breath wooshed out of the Sand genin as the knee smashed home. It did not take him long to actually drain the chakra out of the defeated ninja.

"Hmm. Tough luck on that. It appears his puppets just met the wrong match. There is a bit of luck to this, after all," the Hokage stated calmly as he studied the remaining four genin.

**Misumi Tsurugi versus Sheila of the Leaf**

Sheila glared at sign for omitting her last name, but as she was considered an 'orphan of no clan' she had no clan or family name. With a sigh, she looked over at Misumi. He was dressed almost identically to Yoroi and Kabuto, namely in a blue uniform and face mask with glasses. "Do you dress like that to confuse people in the field with your team?"

"Unless you are very good, its easy to confuse us. And some minor transformations and we can confuse our foes even more," the older Leaf genin said. You could almost hear the smirk on his lips under the mask.

Gekko Hayate again did his duties as the proctor of this impromptu exam and started the fight.

They circled, cautiously probing with a few punches.

"Fighting specialist, hmm?" Sheila commented casually.

"You are pretty confident for a bookworm," the older genin said with a snide tone. He suddenly leaped forward to try and grab her with his large hands.

Sheila grabbed the wrists, again showing her supernatural agility. This was what Misumi was waiting for as he tried grab her with his legs that were suddenly as supple as snakes. Just before they closed on her hips Sheila suddenly flexed and snapped both feet into the older genin's face.

With a flip, she sent him rolling away. "Ah, a grappler. Luckily, my family is known for inventing wrestling. But how do you do when someone doesn't play your game?" She pulled out two kunai and then charged him in a blur.

"Shit you are fast!" the bigger and older Leaf ninja said as he gained several cuts. He ran up the wall to get some room and then to the roof, only to blink as Sheila appeared in front of him from a leap from the ground.

She did a spinning scissor-kick while pivoting on her left hand, sweeping his feet from the ceiling. She then blitzed through the seals for a wind technique, blasting him into the ground with a small gale.

Misumi only had a bare second roll with the attack bonelessly, but was starting to get a little worried. He heard the ceiling creak as the younger Leaf genin launched herself at him. He barely spun to the side when she shattered a crater where he had been with her fist.

"I'm not exactly your normal bookworm," she warned him.

"What sort of monster are you?" he complained as he fought for time. If he could figure out her weakness...

The two jonin next to the Hokage were watching the fight intently. "I'm surprised they aren't both chunin," Kurotsuchi said blandly, pulling her maroon uniform of Stone into perfect placement.

"It does appear Misumi has really advanced this year," the Hokage said blandly. He, of course, knew that the genin was actually a spy for Sound by this point.

Sheila ended the fight with a twisting-toss that slammed the nearly boneless genin to the ground even as her open hand did a fast grouping of one-handed seals and then electrocuted him with a stunning lightning attack.

"One-handed seals? I didn't think that was taught here in Konoha," Baki said in a deep, almost rumbling voice. She had done that with a speed that surpassed most chunin doing regular seals. Most people did not know it, but that was considered an important skill that ninja for jonin of the Mist.

"I think I heard she picked that up off a Mist missing-ninja," the Hokage mused. "On her first A-Ranked mission."

The more Kurotsuchi was hearing about this girl, the more she was sure that the girl had to die during these exams. Her dark eyes narrowed as she looked over to her last genin that had been watching the whole proceeding calmly. "Interesting."

Gekko called out her win as she held a kunai to Misumi's neck.

K**in Tsuchi versus Macha of the Stone**

The young Sound kunoichi had a smirk on her face as she fingered two throwing needles, seemingly unimpressed with the adult genin in front of her. Macha was a huge fellow, over six feet tall and the tallest genin of the bunch. He nearly towered over the girl by a foot and probably outweighed her by at least two times, if not a great deal more.

"I am sorry that I have to do this," the craggy ninja in the red uniform of the Stone rumbled, even as Gekko finished up and started the match.

"Sorry for losing? Yeah, you are!" Kin called out as she threw three needles.

Macha calmly let one of the needles hit him while catching the other two, which he bent into u-shapes. "Chakra strings and bells, hmm?"

The much smaller girl was suddenly much less confident. "I guess you like pain..."

He ignored the comment, even as he finished up his hand seals. "Earth Armor Technique!" As soon as the rock and earth had finished forming over most of his body, he dashed forward far too quickly for a genin and took a swing at her.

The kunoichi managed to dodge the attack which left a large crater where she had been. "Shit, this is bad."

She tried to throw two more needles, specifically missing so that she could start ringing the bells for her genjitsu. So when Macha folded her over his stone-covered fist, she looked quite surprised as the stream of blood coming from her mouth. It was only hard drilled instincts which allowed her to roll with the next punch that nearly took her head off as she cartwheeled through the air.

"Proctor, declare my win," the huge man called out as he watched the broken form of the young girl.

Gekko Hayate waited fifteen seconds, then nodded. "Macha of the Stone, winner of the final round of eliminations."

The Hokage stood up. "Very good, all of you. We will have a very exciting finals." He looked all of the remaining genin over. "You will have a month to prepare, so plan accordingly. All that is left is to determine who you will face in a month. Anko?"

"All right you brats, here's the first round match ups."

**Hinata Hyuga versus Sakura Haruno**

**Shikamaru Nara versus Temari of the Sand**

**Sheila of the Leaf versus Neji Hyuga**

**Shino Aburame versus Yoroi Akado**

**Naruto Uzumaki versus Macha of the Stone**

**Gaara of the Sand versus Sasuke Uchiha**

"Once again, congratulations and good luck," the Hokage called out.

All the genin started to move around to their team leader. Asuma was whispering quietly to his sole remaining genin; Shikamaru Nara as they were already discussing plans. Kurenai Yuhi was talking in low tones to her two genin. Hinata seemed almost bemused by having won and had to work hard to ignore the glares of Ino Yamanaka, while Shino seemed all business. Inoichi Yamanaka headed down to medics where his only genin that made it to the finals was located. Baki had flickered over to his two remaining genin. Sheila tuned into their conversation as Kakashi ambled over to their team.

"Gaara, Temari. Good work, you two. I think everyone can agree that running into someone that can devour chakra was just bad luck on Kankuro's part." Baki paused a moment to see if Gaara was going to kill his brother, but he was strangely silent. "I'm going to head back to talk to the Kazekage about certain matters. I want you to _both_ keep a low profile, as our mission here may need to change. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," Temari said with a very serious nod on her weathered features. "Does it have to do with that Uzumaki kid and having the lost technique of wood?"

"Perhaps. We'll have to see. What about you, Gaara?" the older Sand jonin said.

"Mother wants her blood. She says it will heal her," the insane genin said solemnly.

"Remember, low profile. Try not to attack anyone," Baki warned.

Sheila shifted her attention back to Kakashi who was speaking. "So I'll have to look for someone to tutor both of you as I focus on Sasuke. Gaara is probably going to be holding a grudge against our team."

"He seemed remarkably... normal," she replied blandly.

"Yes, I was actually expecting him to have some problems, but he did not appear to even notice anything was amiss. Which I supposed is lucky for us," the silver-haired jonin noted as he sent a flat look at Sheila.

"Ah, man. I wanted to learn some cool techniques from you," Naruto exclaimed loudly.

"Naruto, you have several really powerful techniques. You just need to train with them a lot. Try to not give yourself too big of a headache," Sheila said as she started to go over what she would be doing for a month.

"Huh, I hadn't thought of that," the male demon-container said aloud.

* * *

Sheila watched as the special jonin Ebisu led the hyperactive member of their team while she was left looking at Genma Shiranui, her new teacher for a month. They were in the middle of the bridge over a wide river that Team 7 tended to use as their meeting spot.

"So... according to your official records, you're pretty good at fighting, have a decent repertoire of ninjitsu, know some genjitsu, have learned quite a bit of sealing." He took the toothpick from where it was hanging on his lip. "How are you with blades?"

"I'm probably considered a failure by my mother and most of the militant of my aunts and uncles," Sheila said cautiously.

"So... let's see what you consider a failure." Genma pulled out a ninjato from a back sheath. "I just happen to have this on me after a little light sparring with Hayate."

Sheila nodded as she pulled out two kunai. She then balanced deceptively on her toes. So when the Special Jonin charged at her, she was ready. Sparks flew from the two kunai as she parried his ninjato. The young demigoddess was giving ground as Genma narrowed his eyes and sped up his attacks. He had to pull back his next attack as she moved around the edge of the bridge.

"Okay, you are better than I thought you would be. Let's take it up a notch, hmm?" the young man said, then spat the long toothpick in his mouth. He was not surprised to see her duck the needle attack while not taking her eyes off of him. But he had put the ninjato on his back and was running through a series of handseals.

The fireball roared out at her and he blinked as she moved fast enough to dodge that as she tossed her two kunai at him and then blitzed through a short set of handseals and breathed out a stream of fire at him that he had duck carefully. "Moving nearly as fast as a jonin? That must burn a lot of chakra."

Sheila did not bother correcting him, as her speed was not dependent on forcing chakra through her body. Having supernatural speed and strength did come in handy, after all. She spun, ducked, twisted and then backflipped over his balls of water that he shot out. Instead of landing, she slipped into the into the ground as if it were water.

"That won't work against me," Genma warned, a wide smile on his fairly young face. He slammed his fist down on the ground an popped out three copies of the genin. "Oh, that's right. Kakashi mentioned you and Naruto really like using clones." He dashed forward into melee range and started a short taijitsu fight. The fact that they were all shadow clones and quite capable of dodging or blocking his attacks was surprising.

It was only his well honed instincts that had him suddenly replace himself with a log as a lightning bolt blasted where he had been sitting. That was when he spotted a fourth Sheila flicker away from where she had fired off the bolt from her perch on a branch next to the river.

"Okay, you are impressing me," the young Special Jonin admitted as he dashed towards her new location, only to be intercepted by the three clones. He leaped into the air even as he released a huge fireball that exploded the ground where he had been, killing two of the clones. He blinked as he saw both clone and original flicker to two kunai and pull them from where they had stuck in a tree.

He thumped to the ground and held up a hand. "Hold up a second. I get the feeling that fighting you would take forever without pulling out more lethal techniques." He pulled out another short needle and stuck it in his mouth as he tried to think. "I can teach you some tactics and tricks. Your speed and fighting is pretty good already, especially with the use of your clones. Why don't you tell me what your plan is for your first fight?"

"Well, my first fight is with Neji Hyuga. He uses the byakugan and the gentle fist style, where he can mess up your tenketsu pretty severely. I would assume that staying in hand to hand range is pretty suicidal normally. He's very fast, maybe even faster than I am, though I think I might be able to train myself up in this month. I figure I will probably have to use ninjitsu creatively to defeat him while avoiding having him close my tenketsu points," Sheila explained her thoughts. "My second round _should_ be with either Shino Aburame or Yoroi Akado. They are both fairly competent in melee and both have techniques for draining chakra. Shino will be easier to defeat, though he probably does have some defenses against anti-bug poisons. I'm faster than Yoroi, so I should be able to use a hard style of taijitsu to defeat him. At that point we should be down to the three finalists and I should be going up against the winner of the first two tiers with an immediate follow up of the last two tiers."

"So you aren't going to speculate who you think you will fight at the end?" Genma asked.

"I might end up fighting someone very weak who got lucky, so it's really random at that point. Hinata should be like Neji, though she is softer. Sakura seems to favor poison and genjitsu, so taking it to her in hand to hand should nullify that quickly. Shikamaru is pretty tricky, but I think some fire-air techniques that create a lot of light should mess him up while Temari is a powerful wind user," Sheila continued her thoughts.

"Fire-air techniques? You have a bloodline?" Genma asked in surprise. "That isn't in your file."

"I don't have a bloodline, I have figured out a crude way to mix elements to approximate bloodlines," she explained as she went through a series of hand gestures with both hands, creating a small tree. "It actually allowed us to determine how to help the Senju with their bloodline."

The special jonin whistled at that. "So do you know any fire-air techniques?"

"Not yet. I may actually have to create them." She gave him a little helpless shrug at that.

"Well, I'm going to give you a hint. Beating everyone in a bland matter won't get you promoted. Showing skill, cunning and a lot of showmanship will get you advanced even if you lose." He gave her a grin as he watched her think.

"So get fancy? Hmm. That may work. Especially if I can use shock and awe to throw everyone else off their game." Already she was thinking thing through. She needed an improved clone. While the shadow clones were very powerful, they were a bit fragile. Her's could take several hits thanks to her personal toughness, but Neji would just nullify that toughness by attack her chakra network.

* * *

Gaara was slinking around the shadows Konoha two weeks later, trying to track down the person he considered to be the greatest threat in the exams. One of his eyeballs that he had made with his sand had spotted the girl at, of all places, the library for the academy. He watched her for an hour as she chatted with one of the chunin, then put the scroll she was reading back on the shelf. She then turned to him and winked.

With a poof of ninja smoke, she disappeared.

"A shadows clone again," he muttered. That must have been why Mother had not been calling for her blood right then. He clenched his fists angrily, even as he wandered back to the hotel he was sharing with his sister.

His sister Temari was sitting in the middle of the room in a lotus position, swirling dust moving around in patterns as she moved her hands through a flat-handed kata. The intense chakra control exercise was one of her favorites.

"You still couldn't find her?" Temari asked as she continued to swirl the streams of dust around her.

"I did, but it was just another shadow clone reading a scroll. Mother wants her blood," Gaara said by rote. In fact, Mother had actually been very quiet the last few days, which was worrying him. To him, that could only mean Mother was scared of the girl. And she _had_ already defeated him once

"Any other rumors?" Temari asked as she thank goodness that she would not have to face the girl. Once she won against the Nara and Gaara had his fight against the Uchiha, they would start the attack.

"Strange things like fishermen complaining that the river lowered over three feet for part of the day yesterday and a strange, frozen pond," Gaara admitted. "They really aren't sure who is doing that, but they are getting the impression _something_ is up." He sat down to meditate with his self-genjitsu technique that he did instead of sleeping.

"Well, maybe we'll be lucky and that prodigy of the Hyuga will take her out," the girl said.

"That's just wishful thinking. And you know it," Gaara said to her with a hard, bloodshot eyed look.

* * *

Hinata Huyga was gasping as she lay in a circle of a small, misshapen crater. Her father, Hiashi Hyuga nodded grimly. "Well, you are finally showing a bit of promise. Making it to the chunin final rounds as a rookie is nothing to be ashamed of."

The short-haired girl blushed at the damning praise. "Thank you, father. I'm glad that all the girls learned to compete directly with the boys back in the academy."

"Yes, ever since that happened, you have been increasing into a modest kunoichi. I had thought that nothing would move you to prove yourself," he replied sternly. "This Haruno girl will not be able to fight you straight forward, of course. Being of no clan of consequence, she will have to use deceit and treachery. Luckily, the Byakugan is perfect for foiling most things like that. With a few more techniques to counter her poisons and the reminder to keep your Byakugan active, you will be able to see through all of her illusions."

Hinata hid her blush and the reason for her improvement. The long ago comment by Naruto after she beat him sparring had driven her to improve herself even as he had during their time at the Academy.

Hanabi Hyuga was watching the fight closely from where she sat on the sidelines on her knees, noticing all the useful tricks that she was seeing. She was actually modestly impressed with her sister, though Hanabi could win about half of their fights. But even the younger girl could see that it was because Hinata did not want to hurt her.

But when she was going all out with her father in this serious training, even she had to admit that her sister would easily outdo her.

"Hanabi, make yourself useful. Get some throwing stars and start throwing them at your sister," her father ordered.

Across town, another kunoichi was sparring vigorously with her jonin teacher as her team mates practiced together. Sakura was wearing a sleeveless shirt and shorts and had a weird pattern on lines and dots drawn on her skin in a soft, peach color. Inoichi Yamanaka had gloves on and was jabbing at the pink-haired girl in an approximation of the Hyuga gentle fist. One of his fingertips found a painted dot and the chemical on the glove mixed to create a painful drug that numbed that part.

Sakura hissed in pain. "This may have not been one of my smarter ideas," she said as her arm dropped uselessly at her side to let the tonfa clatter to the ground.

"Actually, I'm _very_ impressed. I'm pretty sure that the Hyuga would be furious to discover that you figured out a way to train against their style of fighting," the tall, blond jonin said with a soft smile. "Of course, that goes to show that you are quite the brain."

"Then I have to figure out a way to defeat Shikamaru or that kunoichi. And from some of your stories, I get the feeling that I'll have to face Shikamaru if he decides to get serious," she groused in frustration.

"Yes, but he really has doesn't have stories of your clan to determine what you can do. Which means, he has to be a little cautious," Inoichi noted. "I think we are done for today. Ami? Omo? Are you still up for a D-Rank mission?"

The slightly stocky boy nodded. "Yeah, I need some more money to afford a new movie next week."

The jonin from Torture and Investigation noted that. It was a small mark that would make it into his records, but it would always follow him that he was mostly motivated by greed. "All right. Sakura, can you come over tonight? I think Ino could use a friend. She's a bit frustrated that she didn't make it to the finals herself."

"Sheesh, how many times do I have to tell her that Hinata would have taken me apart there, too." Sakura sighed, but then nodded. When both of them had failed to get on Sasuke's team, they had a small truce and were now on friendly terms.

Even if they were still hyper-competitive.

* * *

Sheila looked over the grounds, feeling a thrill as the crowd murmured and shouted as the genin appeared. It was almost like the coliseum, though with only one level above the the incredibly tall wall of the 'arena' for the bystanders. Gekko Hayate and Anko Mitarashi were both present down on the ground level.

Gekko coughed, then raised his voice. "These are you customers. Make sure to entertain them today."

Naruto was looking around wildly, as it appeared that Sasuke was not there yet. "Hey, what about Sasuke?"

The slightly wan-looking special jonin just snorted. "If he fails to show, he gets an automatic loss. And here I thought the Uchiha would be the most interesting fight."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Sheila muttered, getting a surprised look from Hinata.

Neji just gave her a sneer, even as Shikamaru looked a bit confused _and_ worried. Macha just looked on impassively as the tallest genin here.

"Sorry I'm late," a figure said as he appeared in a swirl of leaves. "I was held up for a bit by Kakashi, but I ran ahead on my own." Sasuke had a wide, tight grin on his face. He might not be able to do a seal on a kunai well, but he _had_ figured out the basic summoning scroll trick. Leaving one hidden in the attic of the Uchiha house compound was probably a very smart idea.

The Hokage stood up and held up his arms. "Welcome to the Village Hidden within the Leaves and our Chunin Exam! Let the first match begin!" On either said sat another kage. To his left sat the Kazekage, to the right the Tsuchikage in all their formal robes and hats.

Hiruzen slipped his gaze to his peripheral left, then right. The younger Kazekage seemed calm and unconcerned, while the Tsuchikage looked as irascible as ever.

"This is a lot of frippery for promoting kids for killing each other, Hokage," the gnomish-looking man said.

"Well, we are supposed to show our position as one of the five great villages, Tsuchikage. I'm quite flattered that you decided to show up." Hiruzen's dark eyes flickered further to his right where Kurotsuchi was sitting, looking nothing like her grandfather.

"I do wonder what the Raikage will think of this meeting," the masked and hat wearing form of the Kazekage said in a bland tone. "With the Mizukage being too busy with... internal matters, we are effectively three-quarters of the great villages."

"He's not worried. That kid, he's got some fire," the Tsuchikage said with a gruff laugh. "But I came here to be entertained and to supposedly see something amazing."

"Oh, I think you will be quite pleased. This batch of genin are going to go down in the history books."

Up in the stands, the non-competing genin were sitting in a close row. Kiba and his puppy Akamaru were sitting next to Ami and Omo, while Ino and Choji were sitting more near the front. Rock Lee and Tenten were actually sitting right behind them.

"Kick her ass, Sakura!" the younger Yamanaka shouted out.

"No way, Hinata! Kick _her_ ass!" Kiba shouted right back.

Hinata and Sakura were left on the ground level, among the trees in the great round cylinder. Hinata was wearing a new version of her outfit, made of high quality and tough fabrics. Sakura was wearing her her red outfit, also new and recently fitted to snugly cover her body.

Gekko smirked at the two girls. He really did not expect too much from the two, but he might be surprised. "Are you both ready?" At their nods, he raised his hand and then dropped it.

**Hinata Hyuga versus Sakura Haruno**

"Byakugan," the Hyuga called out as she used her hand seal to activate her bloodline.

Across from her, Sakura pulled out a two tonfa and dropped into a fighting stance, much to the Hyuga's surprise.

"Taking on a Hyuga in hand to hand is just handing me victory, Sakura," the young heiress said with narrowed eyes even as she raised her hands.

"We'll have to see," the lighter-haired kunoichi called out, charging forward and lashed out with a her new weapons.

Hinata slid through the attacks gracefully, but quickly found that she seemed somehow adept at fighting the gentle fist of the Hyuga. And Sakura was fast enough and would jerk in just the right way to keep her from closing her tenketsu.

And those tonfa were hurting when they did hit. After the second hit, Hinata realized she had to change her style and switched to the more basic, harder style that the academy taught. Her transition was so quick and smooth that it caught the pink-haired girl by surprise.

Hinata grabbed her opponent's wrist and then did a spinning throw that sent Sakura skidding across the ground. The pink-haired kunoichi was almost instantly on her feet. But almost instantly was not instantly and Hinata had smashed one of the tonfa, rendering it useless to defend herself.

"Damn it," Sakura muttered as she suddenly backpedaled furiously while throwing a brace of kunai at Hinata who had to pull out her own kunai to block them as she continued forward.

The dark-haired heiress suddenly tossed her kunai at her foe then charged right in behind it, switching back to her family's gentle fist style. But somehow Sakura kept flinching at the very last moment before her strikes would hit, only letting her bruise her arms and not close the tenketsu. "Now I wonder how you trained against that?" Hinata asked rhetorically.

Sakura managed to get a bit of distance with a series of backflips. As she came to her feet, the slightly taller kunoich threw two kunai. Hinata frowned as he quickly pulled out another of her own kunai to block it, but was caught unaware as the second, fake kunai exploded into ceramic fragments and released the noxious gas into the air. She instantly backed away, but already her eyes were watering.

Her foe blitzed towards her even as Hinata quickly pulled out a small jar and dabbed two swathes of jelly under her eyes. The stinging that had been threatening to blind her was forestalled for a moment, but Sakura's single tonfa slammed home hard into her abdomen.

"Face it, Hinata, I've got your number," Sakura announced as she stood over the bent over figure of the Hyuga.

Hinata grimaced, then suddenly spun even as tracers of chakra flashed off her palm. "Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation!" she called out, suddenly blasting the other girl away with the sphere of chakra, though nearly stumbled and fell to the ground.

Everyone was cheering, not having seen such young kunoichi fight so seriously in years. Sakura dashed behind a tree to duck several kunai that Hinata threw at her. She then instantly created two regular clones and sent them out on each side of the tree while she quickly ran up the back of the tree.

So she was quite surprised when Hinata appeared right next to her, having ran up her side of the tree. Sakura was suddenly fighting backwards along a thin branch when she grunted from having several tenketsu closed in her torso and then two in her leg. Sakura's ability to stick the wood suddenly disappeared as her leg suddenly felt numbed. She tried to twist, but the dark-haired girl had leaped right behind her lashing out with a kick that sent her flying into the ground. Sakura's vision swam for a second.

"Proctor, I can kill her instantly," Hinata called out as she held a kunai to the other girl's neck and a glowing fingertip near Sakura's heart.

"I know you wouldn't..." Sakura said very softly, a hard look in her eyes. "But that doesn't change the fact that you won. I give up."

"Winner... Hinata Hyuga!" Gekko Hayate announced to the crowds.

In the stands, Hiashi and Hanabi seemed pleased in a very subdued manner while in the area for the contestants, Neji just sneered at her in anger. The cheering behind him merely angered him, as he felt he could have easily trounced the heir to the Hyuga.

**Shikamaru Nara versus Temari of the Sand**

Temari just leaped from the top of the forty foot wall and with a snap of her fan, flew down to the ground in the center of the stadium to wait for the start.

"Wind manipulation through a medium? Interesting," Sheila thought aloud. That would probably be far less energy intensive than the other way she knew to fly.

"This is really way too much," Shikamaru said in soft complaint.

"Get out there and show us all your stuff!" Naruto then slapped the top-knotted boy on the back, knocking him forward and off the top of the edge and towards the wall, only for Shikamaru's nose to bump into the wall.

Sheila hauled him back up. "Sheesh, Naruto. You're supposed to wait your turn to try and hurt him. Do you want to be disqualified?"

"What? They wouldn't disqualify me for that!" the Nine Tail demon-container declared worriedly.

"They _could_ but they probably won't. They know that you were just being stupid," Sasuke noted aloud.

Naruto glared right back at him, then frowned as he looked back over at Sheila. "Hey, you always slap our heads us when we bad-mouth each other!"

"He called what you were doing stupid or being stupid. He wasn't _just_ being insulting, Naruto," the girl noted. She then looked back over to Shikamaru as he contemplated the girl in the middle of the arena.

With a sigh, the boy with the 'pineapple' top-knot hopped over the wall and down to the ground and walked casually over to stand by the Sand ninja.

"Ready to get pounded to paste oh Leaf," the saucy kunoichi said with her hands on her hips, ready to fight.

"Not going to happen. I'm just trying to decide if I should beat you then forfeit or just forfeit. Ino and my mom versus having to fight seriously," Shikamaru explained with a lazy shrug.

That incensed the girl as her expression and stance changed to utter outrage. She whipped out her fan again. "I'm going to beat you to within an inch of your life."

Gekko Hayate coughed for a second, then just rolled his eyes and leaped up to where the chunin examiners were watching the fight. "Fight!"

Across the way, Sheila frowned and with a glare, cured his long lasting bronchial disease. That coughing was annoying.

Temari instantly unleashed a heavy blast of wind even as Shikamaru frantically dodged tried to roll with the blow. The wind blew him away, so he rode the wind to let it move him faster. He ducked behind one of the many trees, letting her wind scour the bark from the far side of it.

"Tch. She's being really aggressive and serious," he said as he looked around the tree for a long second. He barely pulled it back before another burst of wind ripped into the area, buffeting him slightly even as the tree become more damaged. There weren't a lot of features to work with here. Six trees along the north edge of the arena and a lot of flat, open ground.

He dashed from one tree to another one, nearly getting flayed by the wind user's fan and winds.

"Wow, you Leaf ninja are not as scary as I thought you would be. Or are you just the wimp of the group?" Temari cat-called out to him.

"Come on, Shikamaru! Beat her down!" Ino shouted out from the stadium seating fifty feet up above him.

"Ah, he's doing it now," Asuma Sarutobi noted as Shikamaru made a strange, circular hand-seal and closed his eyes.

"Huh? What is that?" Choji asked his jonin team leader. He had seen Shikamaru do it sometimes, but it never seemed to _do_ anything.

"He's planning. Shikamaru is a scarily smart kid with an I.Q. over 200. Once he gets his plan, he's going to win," the jonin explained.

Shikamaru nodded and then took out his kunai and climbed the tree quickly. Letting himself be seen in the branches, he quickly moved from tree to tree as the Sand ninja kept attacking.

"Well, at least you are good with dodging," she called out to him as she twirled her huge fan around.

His head stuck around the tree trunk again even as he slid to the ground. The top-knotted boy ducked behind the tree again, hunkering down to avoid getting hit.

"Is that all you are good at?" Temari asked as she finished her huge swing of her fan.

"Shadow mimic technique... success," the real Shikamaru said from up in the branches of the first tree as he let his illusion clone disappear.

"What? How did you get over there?" Temari couldn't beleive she had been tricked. He had sent out his shadow from her blind spot.

"I had you attack me high up in the trees to break off a whole bunch of branches so I could replace myself with them them, then left a clone behind where you expected to see me. I also noted that you overcompensated your swing and looked away from your left after each second swing. So I let you move into position where I could attack from your blind spot," Shikamaru said as he walked up, forcing her to meet him halfway. "This is really a big bother though. As I'm nearly out of chakra with all that running around. Proctor, I forefeit," he called out.

Temari _knew_ he could have defeated her if it had come down to it. He had done exactly as he promised, given up after defeating her. Her success was nothing of the sort.

**Sheila of the Leaf versus Neji Hyuga**

Gekko Hayate called down the next two combatants. Neji was quite graceful and seemingly unworried as he landed casually and then walked to the center from the stands.

So the thud of a kunai landing on the ground and the flash as Sheila arrived, pulling the kunai from the ground seemed overly fancy. He sneered at the girl. "This fight has been pre-ordained in its outcome. You have no clan and no name."

"Which just means I don't have any preconceived notions of what I'm limited to," she replied simply. "So you are a big believer in fate?"

"Yes, everything is foreordained and fated," the angry seeming young man said coldly.

"Then I should have died centuries ago. Fie upon fate, for it is what you make of it. I have planned for this day with over a year's of work. I will stand before fate and spit in its eyes," she replied angrily. "I'm going to beat you." She suddenly smiled. "As my teammate would say... believe it!"

The proctor raised an eyebrow at that. "Well, it sounds like you are both ready. Begin!" With that, he swished back to the examiners bench.

Neji flashed forward, going for the early, disabling attacks. The girl was making weird, overly complicated hand gestures even as she pulled back, sidestepped him and ducked his attack.

"You are within the range of my divination," Neji intoned as his byakugen placed him ready to attack in overwhelming power. So when his first six attacks were blocked by stalagmites of ice that shot up from the ground, he was a bit surprised.

The Kazekage nodded approvingly. "An ice bloodline? Interesting. That is quite the coupe from the Land of Water you managed there, Hokage," he said with concealed avarice.

Hiruzen Sarutobi just chuckled. "Actually, it is no bloodline. This girl has figured out how to duplicate bloodlines."

The Tsuchikage and Kazekage both looked shocked at that. It was the Tsuchikage was the first to reply with, "What sort of trick are you talking about? You can't learn a bloodline ability!" His blotted, gnomish features showed his anger quite clearly as he lied.

"Bloodlines that merely blend two elemental types? Those appear to be something that can be duplicated. Isn't the new generation... amazing?" the wizened features of the Hokage were split into a wide smile.

"I was wondering when someone else was going to figure that out," the old Tsuchikage muttered. "But even I never figured out more than one. How many bloodlines can she duplicate?"

The Kazekage's eyes were wide in shock. "So the Village Hidden in the Stone had this secret."

"I have no idea. She's only deciphered this ability in the last few months. So at least two... so far."

Neji was getting a bit frustrated, backing off. He pulled out two kunai and then tossed them at the girl, who again dodged them handily. "You won't win just by running away," he called out in frustration.

"You are right. I guess it's time to up my game." She tapped a small seal in front of her left ear. "Good morning, Konoha." Her voice filled the entire stadium as hidden seals boomed like a massive stereo system. "Let's see how my enterprising opponent deals a dramatic change in the environment. I hope you brought your umbrellas." Her hand slapped down on a particular spot on the ground, triggering a release on seals she had placed on the grounds days ago.

Fountains of water exploded upwards for over a hundred feet in a circle around the inside of the stadium, much to the shrieking surprise of the crowd.

Neji just stared upward as his opponent stood on the top of the geyser as she ran through a really, really long set of hand seals that seemed too complicated. Water vapor spun and circled above the stadium even as it filled with brackish, river water. The spinning clouds darkened and thunder rumbled within its depths.

"Kai," the Hyuga said, just to make sure he was not in some form of illusion. His eyes should have pierced it, but he was suddenly not sure of anything. He stood on the surface of the new lake that was at least ten feet deep. "This does not change anything," he bluffed. In fact, this changed quite a bit as he was not nearly as fast on water as he was on the ground.

"Think quick," she called out as beams of lightning started to strike the water.

"Storm? _And_ Ice? And that was a neat bit of sealing that I would expect of a chunin," the Tsuchikage said with eyes narrowed in deep, hard thought.

"She's using one handed seals with both hands. That still should not allow the blending of the dual-chakra for bloodlines," the kage of the Village Hidden within the Sand as he kept his eyes riveted on the girl.

"Sheila does seem to turn accepted convention upon its ears, doesn't she?" the Hokage said blandly, even as he gloated inside. This would cement Kohona as the premiere ninja village of the Elemental nation for years. And that did not even include the post exam fireworks.

Down below the Hyuga was dancing to a tune of lightning and thunder, moving as quickly as he could across the water, much to the visible shock of the other genin.

Sakura looked over at Temari and Hinata. "Good luck with that," she said dryly.

Temari just glared at the loser, even as Hinata had to stifle a shiver of fear in the wet and cold.

Gaara, on the other hand, looked even more maniacal as he sat, muttering to himself about and to his mother.

"That looks really cool, doesn't it, Sasuke?" Naruto said to his team mate.

The last Uchiha nodded carefully as he studied the combat. "She won't use this against us. She'll do something entirely different."

"Are you certain of this? She's already pulled out more tricks than I would have expected to see," Shino noted in a level tone.

"You didn't listen to what she said. She's used shadow clones to plan for today with over a years worth of time. Don't hold back against her in the slightest," he argued. In fact, he was rather upset that she had done what he had, though he had done a lesser amount of time.

Macha and Yoroi seemed unimpressed, watching impassively at the end.

The geysers cut out even as the storm lessened. Sheila landed on the surface of the turbulent waters as easily as if it were packed dirt. Neji immediately moved up, only to see her blur away, far faster than water walker allowed you to patter across the water.

"She really is the new Yellow Flash," Macha finally said in his deep voice.

The Hyuga prodigy stopped trying to chase her futilely. He raised his hands in the default defensive stance of the Hyuga gentle fist.

"Time for another venue change," Sheila said as touched a seal on her left hand's palm and ran through another series of overly complicated hand seals, then slammed her hand down on the water. A powerful glow shown for just a second as the lake suddenly turned to ice. "How much training on ice have you had?"

Her opponent glared at her, setting himself carefully on the ground only a bare moment before she ice-skated into range, then around him in a blur.

Rock Lee was watching this fight closely, frowning as the fight seemed to move up to the top speeds he could go. "Is this the power of her youth?" he asked Maito Gai.

"If it is, it is truly amazing," the jonin admitted.

"How is she doing two bloodlines?" Tenten asked from the other side of the jonin. That should not be possible.

"I actually don't know that either," Gai said as he studied the fight. The girl was showing long experience with using ice.

Suddenly there were three more clones around Neji. His eyes glared at her as he realized he could not tell the difference. They seemed identical... except for one that had a strange seal of chakra above her heart. "Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin!" Neji called out as they charged in. The spinning chakra sphere popped the three clones. He instantly charged forward, lashing with his gentle fist, not even taking the time to announce his next attack. Sixty-four attacks later, he let her skid away. "I have sealed all of your tenketsu. You are limited to only taijitsu."

Sheila hopped back up to her feet and pulled out a kunai. "It would appear that, wouldn't it?"

Neji really didn't like that answer very much, so moved to finish it. He charged back in as she tried to slice him, only for _another_ Sheila to appear in a flash in the middle of a perfectly timed kick, hand upon the kunai the first Sheila had tried to stab him with. Neji had raised his hand to block the dagger and he was folded over by the new girl arriving. He backed away, even as he held an arm over his hurting stomach. "Another clone?"

"The original, actually. I figured I would let you waste your efforts on her," Sheila explained even as she healed up her clone with an invisible wave of legend. "Of course, I did have to show off my new, improved shadow clone."

"What was that overwhelming white chakra?" the Hyuga prodigy asked even as he frowned.

"You could see that? Interesting. But it really is time to end this." With that, both girls charged at him across the ice, spinning around him rapidly.

"Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin!" Neji called out, only to slip just as he started as the layer of water under his left foot pulled him off his balance. He went spinning across the ice and barely managed to position his feet to slam into the frost and ice covered walls. "You did that on purpose." His active Byakugan was studying her closely.

"Take five," the real Sheila told her clone as they high-fived each other. "It's time to finish this one on one." She then started to walk towards the boy, exuding such confidence that would strike the faint of heart to shivering in fear.

Even Neji could feel that this was something external, having seen that strange flash of white chakra again. "Yes, let's end this." He snorted as she walked into the range of his divination as if she did not care. "You are within the range of my divination. Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"

The crowd gasped as they saw the prodigy seemingly hit with impunity. Two, then four, then eight and then sixteen. Thirty-two times and then finally sixty-four strikes."

Neji Hyuga stepped back and folded his hand across his chest. "You are defeated-"

"Great Storm Wavefront!" Sheila interrupted him with as swirling, spinning mist with electricity flashing within it slammed into him.

That caused the start of a murmur across the crowd, as they thought that the girl had been defeated, but had somehow turned it back upon the boy.

"Father? Didn't Neji use the Gentle Fist properly?" the young Hyuga, Hanabi, asked worriedly.

"As far as I can tell, he did." Hiashi Hyuga Byakugan was active as he studied the girl closely. "She has done something to her chakra points. Like a seal above each one." He gave a dry chuckle. "Hinata would have actually done better, as she can not yet see those points, so would have to just disrupt the chakra coils."

Neji tried to rise to defend himself only to get kicked in the chest and slide across the icy wall. "What sort of monster are you?"

"Supposedly an extinct variety," she replied dryly, even as she ice-slid over to him in a blur and then snapped a punch into his face, spun to smash an elbow into his gut and then did a head butt into his face. She continued to spin and swept his feet out from him even as she avoided his very basic punch. She slammed her palm to his chest, popping all the cartilage on his sternum painfully. "You can give up now."

He tried to pull himself up, but his chest was on fire. Even with his Byakugan, he could barely see straight Even so, he tried to lash out at her heart, only for his wrist to be grabbed and popped with a sickening crack. "Aargh!" The last thing he saw was a fist headed right for his face.

"Idiot," Sheila muttered as she pulled her fist back. Neji's head was imbedded in the ice. He was totally out cold.

Gekko called out her win to the crowd that roared out their amazement.

**Shino Aburame versus Yoroi Akado**

The two Sheila's passed Shino and Yoroi as they headed down to the ground level of the arena. They leaped up to land on the edge of the fifty foot tall wall.

"That was way cool! You've really improved your Ice," Naruto said with a huge grin on his face. "Man, I've barely gotten good with Wood."

Macha was looking at Sheila as if she were a slab of beef. "Did you do that on purpose?"

"I did a lot of thing on purpose, so you might need to be more specific," the real one asked in a glib tone.

"That ice..." the Stone ninja.

"What? Will make it cold for exo-thermic insects to function? Covered the earth so that your techniques would be weakened in preparation for my fight in case you win against him? Though, that will be tougher for you, won't it?" she continued in her bland way.

Temari blinked at that, looked at the ice covering the bottom of the stadium. "You mean you did all that ice just to fight against him?"

"Of course not. I mean, it'll make all of your fights harder too, as I doubt any of your have practiced standing on melting ice. I mean, it's a win-win situation for me," Sheila said with a vacant-seeming smile.

"Oh, you bitch," Temari replied with a scowl on her face.

"This is fairly normal for her planning ahead," Sasuke noted with an evil-looking smirk. "Of course, I _did_ practice on ice when I heard a rumor of ponds getting frozen over."

"Oh, man. That's not cool- Uh, I mean that sucks," Naruto said in a frustrated tone.

Yoroi Akado was playing it conservative, dodging the swarms of destruction bugs that Shino Aburame was sending out. So he was surprised when the swarms moved back sluggishly.

The masked genin frowned behind his mask, then suddenly realized the issue. "Your bugs don't like the cold, do they?"

The young teen did not reply, his eyes hidden behind his sunglasses and most of his lower face hidden by the collar on his jacket. The older genin decided to end it before the Aburame could heat up his bugs. Yoroi _had _actually had some practice in fighting on ice and so could move faster than the rookie genin.

So with a dash, he charged forward and grabbed Shino by the shoulders before he could duck back behind a tree. With a fiendish smile, he started draining him with his chakra draining technique. The effects were immediate and dramatic as the dark-haired genin exploded into constituent bugs... a clone!

The buzzing as waves of destruction bugs came out from behind the tree that the clone had led him to. The destruction bugs swarmed over him. Yoroi tried his best, but swatting at the destruction bugs with his hands draining chakra was only partially effective.

It became very much a hindrance when Shino charge in and grappled with the older teen, pushing Yoroi's hands against himself and ripping his own chakra from his body. In moment, the older genin was defeated.

Shino pushed his sunglasses back up the bridge of his nose. "I believe I have won, as he is unconscious."

"Winner; Shino Aburame!" Anko Mitarashi called out from the examiner box. She clicked the microphone off. "That was actually pretty good, if not too fancy. I don't think I've see two guys that drain chakra actually duke that out."

Gekko nodded thoughtfully. "And he defeated Yoroi by using his own strength against him."

**Naruto Uzumaki versus Macha of the Stone**

"Wahoo! My turn!" Naruto shouted out as he leaped off the wall and landed on the ground. He immediately lost his footing and slipped on his head. "Whoops." FOOM. Macha landed heavily, cracking the ice and started walking steadily to the center of the arena, Naruto catching up after a moment with a quick trot.

The two looked up at the crowd that was cheering quite a bit, as it had been an entertaining day so far.

"So are you ready?" Naruto asked the big genin with a huge smile.

"I apologize. But I have to fight against Sheila so must defeat you utterly," Macha explained as he fell into a heavy fist fighting form.

"Uh, why? Not that I'm not going to fight my hardest-" The blonde boy looked confused right then.

"She is the daughter of the Fourth Hokage and an enemy to the Stone. That man... he murdered my parents in the last war. So I'm going to kill her," the big man said with a shrug. He wouldn't bother to mention that his Tsuchikage had ordered him or that he was actually a just promoted chunin.

"Huh? But she's not from Konoha. Heck, I think she said she was summoned somehow. So she can't be the Fourth Hokage's kid." Naruto seemed rather insistent.

"She can use his space-time technique using the kunai. That is all the proof we need," he replied even as he started carefully walking towards Naruto.

"Oh? That's it? Wow, but that isn't that tough." Naruto pulled out a kunai with crude seals upon it. He threw the kunai across the arena... then disappeared in a flash. "See? If doing space-time techniques is all it takes, then I'm guilty too."

The Tsuchikage and the Kazekage both leaned forward at that display as the crowd suddenly roared. "What the hell, Hokage?" the old Stone ninja asked. No, nearly demanded.

"I thought that technique was rumored to be lost," the leader of the Sand ninja asked with wide open eyes, an almost murderous intensity in the small pupils.

"Hmm. I had no idea he had been working on that technique. Sheila must actually understand her version better than Minato had," the Third Hokage murmured to himself.

Sasuke palmed his forehead where he sat on the competitor's row. "Idiot."

"Did that knucklehead actually use _that_?" Temari asked in sudden concentration.

"He used the Flying Thundergod Technique," Gaara finally said as his full attention was on the blond down on the field.

Macha continued to tromp over, smashing ice with each footstep as stone armor grew over his body slowly. "That does not scare me. Neither of you have an attack that can hurt me," the Stone ninja declared.

"Ha! Says you!" Naruto cried out as he created a half dozen clones and they charged in.

The big ninja threw a massive punch that would have likely taken the real Naruto's head off, which the shadow clone actually ducked under and they all slammed heavy punches into him. They all retreated back a moment later as they tried to figure out a way to get through that layer of rock that the Stone ninja was somehow wearing.

Macha, on the other hand, was really, really annoyed that Sheila had put ten feet of very hard ice between him and any usable earth or rock. This almost crippled him and caused his earth techniques to really require a lot of extra power. "Stand still, you brat."

"Grr." The real Naruto centered himself and then went through the hand seals for his second favorite technique. A massive tree grew out of the ground actually lifting the big Stone ninja off the ice and then slamming him to the ground. Another tree grew up and then arced down, smashing itself on the rock-form and creating a crater in the ice.

"Not even that will affect me," Macha rumbled as he punched though a third tree. The rock armor he was currently using really was impervious to most attacks.

"All right. Time to get serious," Naruto said as he scrambled backwards quickly. He reached into his orange jacked and pulled out a fairly thick scroll case. "All right guys. Time to take him down." He started handing out ragged looking sheets of parchment.

"Oh, crap," both Sheila and her clone called out.

"He isn't using those, is he?" Sasuke asked in worry. "He knows he's not that good at making explosive tags."

The clones charged forward, triggering the explosive tags. Macha hunkered down and then rode out the massive explosion that filled the arena with smoke. There were cracks in the armor, but they sealed up even before the smoke cleared. "That level of attack won't work either," Macha said as he hoped it was true.

"Hmm." Naruto had noticed that he had to ride it out. This would make a bit dent in his stock of scrolls, but it would be worth it. He created another dozen shadow clones, surprising those watching him as he handed out even more explosive tags.

"He's using more? Even when it didn't work? What is he, stupid?" Temari asked Naruto's team mate from the top of the wall.

"No, he's got a plan," Sheila noted aloud. "He might win here."

Naruto and two clones started their technique, creating rather massive wood beams that exploded out of the ide and arced back down to attack Macha. He managed to parry the first one, but the second and third beams of wood smashed him down into the ice.

"CHARGE!" the clones all shouted as they ran in, igniting the tags at twenty feet.

Macha struggled within the wood bindings. How can this punk have that much chakra to infuse into the wood technique? Then he heard that clones and realized he was about to be in the center of a large explosion again and tried to furiously reinforce his armor with his dwindling chakra.

The explosion was twice as powerful and left the panting Naruto and his two surviving clone waited for the smoke to clear. The crunch of granite on ice was suddenly heard. "Ah, man what is it going to take to take him down?"

"More- than- you- have-" Macha said grimly as he tromped out. He was going to win this one, but he knew in his heart already that he was not going to take out the girl too.

"Damn, out of chakra and mostly out of tags," the demon-container noted. Well, he _had_ been practicing the summoning technique while being depleted of chakra. "Summoning!" he shouted after biting his thumb and slamming his palm upon the ground.

"What? He has to be out of chakra?" Kiba shouted out.

With a poomf, a massive, fifteen foot tall, red toad wearing a samurai breastplate and carrying a naginata appeared with Naruto on his head. "Heya, buddy! Can you help me fight this guy? He's promised to kill one of my friends!" he called out to the toad below him.

"No!" the Tsuchikage said in horror as he realized what he was seeing. "The damn Flash had more than one spawn! Just how many of his rug-rats did you have hidden, Hokage?"

His grand-daughter realized it also, clenching her fists tightly. Sarutobi just kept his face schooled in a bland smile as Naruto proved himself the most surprising ninja of Konoha. The Kazekage's eyes were narrowed in deep, deep angry thoughts.

The toad blinked as it realized what had happened. "You are kidding, right?"

"Nope! I could really use the help. Ready, partner?" Naruto called out.

"Hiyah!" the toad shouted, charging forward and sweeping the naganata down with stone-splitting force, breaking part of Macha's armor off.

"Hiyah!" Naruto shouted as he leaped off of the toad's head, his eyes flashing red for just a second as he desperately pulled on the Nine Tail's chakra to boost his speed and strength.

BOOM! went the attack as Naruto punched Macha deeper into the crater and shattered his armor.

"I won't ever let you hurt the people I care for! They are my friends! My team mates!" he declared loudly at the Stone ninja who was laying in the crater.

"Kid, stay the hell down," the toad croaked out as he held the spear to Macha's neck.

Tears were leaking out his eyes as he clenched his fist in the shattered ice. "I submit."

The crowd roared their approval of his winning the fight as Konoha finally showed acceptance to their prodigal and hated son.

Shikamaru was leaning back on his seat next to the rest of his team. "I _so_ made the right call there. That whole team is way too much of a bother to fight."

Ino and Choji just nodded agreement, even as Asuma stood up. He leaned over next to his students. "You are all armed like I ordered, right? No, don't pat for your weapons, just nod. Good. Be prepared for the worst."

"I don't think I have enough chakra," the heir of Nara said softly to himself as he realized that Asuma had been the _last_ jonin within the crowd. "Hey Choji, I need a bag of your chips. It's important."

In the seats about fifty feet away, Kabuto Yakushi frowned under his purloined ANBU mask as he prepared to enact his massive genjitsu to put everyone to sleep here. He had an itching feeling in between his shoulder-blades that as a spy he had never ignored that was telling him to run. But he could not outrun Orochimaru, so he would have to run _after_ doing his part.

**Gaara of the Sand versus Sasuke Uchiha**

Sasuke and Gaara were standing off side to the center of the arena, as the center was filled with wood splinters and had a huge crater within it.

"Mother will bath in your blood," Gaara called out in a slightly desperate voice. In fact, he had not heard from the voice that he called Mother in over a week.

"Being crazy doesn't actually make you more powerful, you know," the last Uchiha of Konoha noted aloud.

Gekko swished back up to the examiners booth to watch the fight, watching this fight intensely.

"You can't hurt me," the smaller Sand ninja declared.

Sasuke backed up while his face lit up with grim delight. His fingers were flashing through the complicated double-movements of meshing two single-hand seals. He then belched a stream of molten lava at his opponent who quickly set a wave of sand to block the attack.

"Lava?" Kurotsuchi asked in a strangled voice next to her grandfather in the Hokage's booth. It wasn't _exactly_ the same as her own lava technique which was more chemical in nature, but an Uchiha should not have had it at all.

Gaara grimaced as he had to step back from the lava pool that was heating up the ice with explosive results, creating a geyser of steam. "Wait... you have the Sharingan _and_ Lava? That should not be possible."

Sasuke just smirked. Inwardly, he felt a great deal of pride doing something Itachi wasn't able to do. He then suddenly dashed forward across the ice at high speed, then changed direction to skid around a wall of sand that Gaara shot at him. He lashed out with a spinning side-kick at high speed, but only bounced off the sand wall.

"I won't let you hurt me," the Sand ninja declared, his bloodshot eyes looking quite maniacal as he sent out a wave of sand to crush Sasuke.

The last Uchiha just adjusted his slide and whisked himself out of the way, faster than the sand could follow. He trotted up the wall and then went through a series of handsigns, sending out a brace of mini-fireballs before leaping back down to the ground. Gaara's sand returned to him and then created a semi-spherical wall to block the fireballs.

Sasuke nodded, even as he threw three kunai as he slid back around his opponent, hopping over a bit of the debris from the previous fight. Two blades were stopped by the sand, while the third one hit the ground behind Gaara and so was ignored. Sasuke made a hand gesture even as he spun a kick out. In a flash, he appeared behind Gaara and his kick finished slamming into the back of his opponent's head. "Tch. He has some sort of inner armor." With that, he quickly hopped back then had to dive out of the way as Gaara's sand rushed after him to crush him.

"It's not as good as the Fourth's, is it?" the old, gnomish Tsuchikage noted in his gruff manner. "Of course, they are genin using something that looks like his S-Rank technique..."

"What do you mean, old man?" Kurotsuchi asked her grandfather.

"The Fourth Hokage could attack faster and in between his seals faster than the eye could follow. This is but a parlor trick. A potent one for genin, but not the Flying Thunder God." At least yet, the irritated old man thought to himself.

The Third Hokage just gave his old foe a glance from the side of his peripheral vision. "Well, she has only been studying seals for about seven months. The boys an even shorter time."

"Such potential," the Kazekage noted with a hint of avarice.

Sasuke was still sliding across the ice at high speed. This was actually helping him conserve his strength and chakra. But he had to do something... That was it. He started to do one-handed seals, confusing Gaara.

"Why are you limiting yourself?" the Sand ninja asked himself even as Sasuke inhaled a great breath.

His other hand did the activation signal to one of the two unused kunai on the icy ground. Unlike Sheila or Naruto, his seal-marked kunai were one-shot use items for now. And they took a lot of time to create. But teleporting in the middle of releasing his fireballs meant the sand could _not_ react fast enough.

Gaara's inner sand armor was still tough, so that saved his life. But it did not stop him from getting second degree burns and melting sand into his face. "AAAARGH!" Gaara screamed as the sand started to go wild.

A wave of sand hit Sasuke's stomach hard. In desperation, he flashed to his last kunai and then replaced himself with a log that was shredded by the sand.

Temari suddenly was leaning forward as Gaara gathered the sand around him in a ball. "No, this is too early."

Both Sheila and her clone heard that and were suddenly hyper-aware. She suddenly heightened her senses to a degree that would have shocked an Inuzuka, listening in to several conversation that she figured were important.

"Mother! I don't want to die," Gaara was saying in his sand bubble. "I'll murder them all! They'll die! It hurts! It hurts!" He held up his hands to his ravaged face. Nothing had ever hurt him before. Nothing!

Up in the private booth, Hiruzen leaned forward. This could be it. "It seems your son is having a problem."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, even as he ran back up the wall and prepared himself, making a set of handseals and gathering his lightning chakra into his left hand. After ten long moments and with his chakra glowing brightly, he dashed down the wall and across the frozen, shattered field of battle in a rocketing blur. The chirping sound of the Chidori echoed through the stadium.

With a crack of thunder from the lightning attack, the chidori slammed home... piercing through the sand barrier.

Gaara screamed again, unable to imagine how _Mother_ could fail him so thoroughly. The cocoon started to bubble and warp, even as Sasuke had to quickly pull himself back. The sand then exploded as Gaara continued to scream, over and over.

The hidden Kabuto frowned behind his purloined ANBU mask, as this looked like the release of the One-Tailed Beast. It was time as he released the massive chakra for the wide area affect genjitsu then, creating feathers in the air that started to put people to sleep.

_OPERATION START_.

Across the stadium's stand, several people broke the genjitsu on themselves. The hidden Kakashi and Gai both broke it, as did Sakura and Sheila with her clone. Sheila and her clone looked at each other even as golden metal formed over their bodies. "Hail." They both started to make handseals very fast in perfect coordination.

Baki flashed over to Temari who had moved down to Gaara. "Get Gaara out of here if you can or at least direct Shukaku if he can transform."

"He suffering side affects from trying to transform," Temari noted worriedly.

Gekko Hayate landed back in the field as he realized what was going on.

"So this is the start of your attack?" Sasuke asked. He then smiled nastily. "Gaara can't unleash the One-Tailed Beast."

Temari and Baki just looked at the Leaf genin as if he were nuts. "What are you talking about?" the sister of the maniac asked. "Hell, how do you know about Shukaku!" And he _knew_ of the attack?

"Did you really think we wouldn't detect you bringing a demon-container into the village. We knew on the first day... and planned for treachery," the last Uchiha explained as his two tomoes in each eye whirled.

"What did you do?" Baki demanded.

"We took away your demon, of course. And you didn't even realize it." Sasuke's smile was almost feral.

That chilled them to bone even as a cloud formed in the sky due to Sheila's Storm technique. Then the real Sheila leaped up to the edge of the building that the Kazekage had dragged the Third Hokage to. Four ninja wearing Sound headbands started to make hand seals. One ANBU rushed, but Sheila threw a marked kunai to land behind Hiruzen just after he had freed himself.

A violet energy erupted to create a massive cube of force that would stop all energies and incinerated the ANBU agent that was not quite fast enough when he hit the wall.

"The Hokage will have to break free on his own!" a racoon-masked ANBU called out.

"So this is what it comes down to, Orochimaru? An assassination attempt upon me?" the Hokage asked his student as he ripped off the face of the Kazekage. With a swish, he removed his own robes of state, once more student and teacher and both garbed for battle.

Sheila made a hand gesture and appeared behind the Hokage via the Flying Thunder God technique even as an inner layer of the barrier appeared, seemingly trapping them inside.

Outside, the spot she had been standing on disintegrated from an attack that seemed part explosion and part wave. Before the ANBU could turn around, the Tsuchikage had disappeared back down to his seat in the booth. "I missed. That girl must have the luck of the god's themselves, Kurotsuchi," he said to his grand daughter.

The wind howled above the stadium, causing the attacking ninja to look up in worry. They all leaped away as hard hail fell from the sky with power enough to cause bruises... and woke up almost everyone in the audience.

"Smart move, Sheila," Sakura called out. "But Sasuke needs help. I'm headed down there. Come on, Hinata." Both Kunoichi leaped down into the ice covered arena floor.

Inside the barrier, Sheila had slipped beside the Hokage as he pulled out a shurikan and threw it. "Lord Hokage? Priority to escape or to killing the traitor?" The shurikan multiplied with the use of a shadow clone technique.

"Kill the traitor while our forces ambush his attack," the old man answered even as Orochimaru raised stone coffins to block the attacking shurikan.

"Bad choice, Sarutobi. You should have fled," Orichimaru said in his silky-smooth way as a figure appeared out of the first stone coffin.

The First Hokage looked down upon two Leaf ninja even as his brother, the Second Hokage, stepped out of the second of three stone coffins.

"No, can't allow that third coffin to open," Hiruzen said as he quickly encased it in stone with an earth technique.

Sheila's gold covered clone grabbed Naruto's hand. "Naruto, the Hokage is being attacked. He needs our help. Make as many clones as you can out here."

"Right!" Naruto created over a hundred clones while the gleaming, metal covered girl created twenty gleaming duplicates.

Sheila slipped one of her last seal-marked kunai under a seat. Then, with a flash, they appeared inside the barrier.

"Team Seven, arriving!" Sheila called out. "Soldier pills." She crunched one in her mouth and handed one out to Naruto and her clone.

"What about Sasuke?" Naruto asked before he crunched his soldier pill.

"No, it's best he stay out. Orochimaru wants him for some reason," the Third Hokage stated grimly for the exact same reason Sheila had not grabbed the last member of Team 7. He frowned as the clone crunched her own soldier pill.

"Two genin won't help you," the evil sannin declared even as he pulled out two prepared strips of paper with seals and tied them to two kunai.

Sheila narrowed her eyes and threw the last three of her kunai at the First Hokage. Orochimaru was just slamming both kunai into his undead summons when the First Hokage (and the paper-seal he was about to put into him) were shredded into confetti by the full Flying Thundergod technique. With a backflip, she zipped away.

"You bitch! You destroyed him!" the Snake Sannin snapped out in a tone of utter hatred.

"You are an enemy of Konoha. You wish to kill the Hokage, we will save him. You tried to mark Sasuke, so we tricked you. You are going to _die_ today, Orochimaru!" she responded to his statement.

"Naruto, let's try to work towards the coffin the Second Hokage came out of," the Sheila-clone said to him quietly.

"Why?" he asked worried as he saw the Third Hokage summon Enma the Monkey King.

"We might be able to disrupt the summon by attacking the container it came from. Maybe seal it or smash it," she continued.

The Second Hokage tried to blast them all with a massive wave of water, but Hiruzen created a wall of earth to block the majority of the attack. As he was doing that, Orochimaru was summoning a massive amount of poisonous snakes that bit and snapped at the golden girl in front of him who tried to punch him.

"Ah, so that technique has armored you. Interesting," Orochimaru noted as he tried to break her jaw, only to discover it was like punching a steel door, not soft gold.

"Forest Summoning Binding!" Naruto shouted out, sending a mass of tree branches to try and bind up the Second Hokage. "Man, I can't believe I'm fighting one of my ancestors."

"What? You are a Senju? Then fight me for everything you are worth, boy!" the undead summon declared in a monotone manner as he smashed the trees. The other golden girl was staying back, so he would ignore her unless she started to try an attack.

"Yeah, I'm Naruto Uzumaki of Clan Senju! And I'm going to stop you and protect everyone I care about!" the blond boy declared.

"Ah, Hoji's boy that married into the Land of Whirpool. And with those marks and that lost technique..." Tobirama Senju said as he thought.

"Huh? You know my family?"

"Face me, student. I'm not a weak innocent," Hiruzen declared as he tried to pulverize his old student with Enma in his diamond-hard staff form. He wielded the caber-sized pole as if it were a staff.

"Kukukuku, you are really being annoying today. These genin are really making murdering you a lot harder than it should be, old man." Orochimaru summoned a forty-foot long snake to attack Sheila while he dodged a blow from the Hokage that would have smashed him flat.

Sheila tossed a regular kunai as hard as she could, punching right through the snake and dispersing it and causing the inside of the barrier to ring like a gong, but failing to pierce through and kill one of the four Sound ninja on the other side. "Damn it!"

Suddenly the Second Hokage started to crumble into paper flakes. Orochimaru blinked and then glared. "How did you defeat my perfection of the Second Hokage's Impure World Summoning!"

Naruto just gave him a grin as he sent out a huge wave of branches to try and snare the snake. "I distracted you and him from Sheila's clone. She must have broken your technique at the source."

The Sheila at the back waved and the poofed away, a totally normal clone that took almost no effort to maintain. The shadow-seal clone appeared next to the Second Hokage's coffin where she had just destroyed the seals on the sacrifice within. "Surprise."

"Teamwork, as always, is the heart of Konoha and our Will of Fire. You have failed, Orochimaru," Hiruzen said with a grim smile.

Orochimaru frowned as he contemplated things.

Sheila charged in behind the Hokage, throwing her three kunai again at the Snake Sannin as he fought with a sword that dripped poison. Orochimaru barely replaced himself with some roof tiles before the Flying Thundergod could strike.

"Missed!" she groused as she caught the three kunai and skittered across the ground.

"Ah, perhaps that is it..." he thought. He had been feeling something. With a hand-seal, he forced activation of his cursed seal and was surprised when Sheila and her clone slapped their right hands to their necks.

"I really should have kept my mouth shut," she said angrily as she fought to control the seal _hard_.

"Ah, you tricked me by taking his place. That means his eyes..." Orochimaru shook his head as he leaped back and away. He felt a blast of wind that made him brush the violet barrier of energy, nearly scorching him to death. "What was that?" He barely dodged a massive tree branch that smashed itself to ash against the barrier.

Sheila was not going to explain herself and the use of her ability to control winds like they were her own hands. "You are going to die, Orochimaru. That is a promise."

The Snake Sannin hissed as he barely dodged Sarutobi, but managed to swing and nicked the old man. "Ah, you finally slowed down enough that I could poison you. Enjoy the last of your life before you burn in hell, 'Professor'." With that he summoned another massive snake, but instead of sending it to attack, he leaped into its mouth and then dispersed the summon, instantly escaping.

"Escaped. I _am_ getting too old for this," the Third Hokage complained as he leaned on the thick pole of the transformed Enma.

"Poisoned. That's a nasty neurotoxin and hemotoxin combination," Sheila said as both of her zipped over to him.

"I might be able to slow it down, but I need serious medical attention," he explained to them as his hands glowed green over the wound on his shoulder.

"Old Man, you better not die!" Naruto shouted as he ran up across the destroyed ruins of the roof within the double-barrier.

"This really has weakened you, hasn't it?" Sheila lied while letting the fat Sound ninja see her lips through the barrier.

He immediately called out a code-word to his compatriots. As soon as they dropped the inner-barrier, she mystically purged the poison with her mastery of the godly healing purview.

"Except that I could cure him of being poisoned at any time," the golden-covered girl said to Jirobo as he rushed them.

"What? You... lied to us, you damn piece of trash!" the fat ninja shouted.

"Ah, crap. We're going to %$%ing die!" Tayuya, the only female of the team, said as she ran into the golden clone and Naruto as they struck at her.

"Wow, she's sure got a mouth on her," the shorter demon-container said in wide-eyed shock. Even so, he was already creating trees to bind her.

Tayuya had a scowl on her lips even as she brought up her flute to play as she skidded sideways. So she was shocked when the air itself seemed to grab the flute and then broke it. "What the $%*%ing hell was that?"

Jirobo missed grabbing the Hokage when he suddenly sprouted kunai and lost his head from two ANBU.

"Use your second stage seals!" Kidomaru called out, even as he started to mutate into a hybrid of a man and spider. He had only gotten about halfway before Enma smashed him down, killing him instantly.

The last of the Sound Four decided that discretion was better than valor and tried to flee, even as he activated his own curse seal.

"Let him go," the Hokage ordered.

"What about the girl?" the bat-masked ANBU asked.

"Kill her. She's too dangerous with an advanced curse seal. What is the situation in Konoha?" the leader of the Leaf ninja asked.

"The wall was breached and over a hundred enemy ninja made it in, but we are repulsing them fairly easily. It appears Jiraiya was in town and his boss toad squashed the summon that was trying to devour everyone." The ANBU had surrounded him even as they moved back across the roofs towards the Hokage Tower. "We killed Baki, the jonin leader of the two genin in the exam and captured both kids."

"Good, we can use them to force peace back between our nations," Hiruzen noted.

"The Kazekage will listen to you about this?" another female ANBU asked.

"No, he's dead. Orochimaru probably killed the fool himself. But they will be willing to listen now. Naruto, Sheila; stay with me while we finish this fight." With that, the Hokage threw himself in between six Sand ninja, smashing four of them down with a single hit from each of his limbs.


	4. The Fifth Hokage

It was hours later when Jiraiya finally caught up to his old teacher. "You are looking pretty good, old man," the giant of a shinobi said to his old mentor.

"I won't admit it to anyone else, but I was very worried there for a second. Then some _genin_ managed to rescue me. It appears the will of fire is indeed strong in the next generation." The short, old man chuckled at that as he fiddles with lighting his tobacco pipe. "I've already had some of my advisers in here trying to convince me that I should not advance either of them to chunin. The only one they want me to advance is the Uchiha and the older Hyuga. And they were very impressed with the Nara."

"So they are holding Naruto's passenger against him still? And the reasoning behind not advancing any of the girls? From what I heard, they were all rather impressive considering they were rookies," the Toad Sage noted sagely, then cracked a wide grin.

"It seems there is some bias that they weren't nearly as entertaining for the younger Hyuga and Haruno, while for Sheila... they seem to think she was showing off too much of her ability." The Hokage chuckled again at that. "Yet she only started being serious when Orochimaru showed up and tried to assassinate me."

Jiraiya took in the furious scowl that appeared on his mentor's face. "I know that look, that's the one when you have to deal with something unpleasant."

"I had to make it clear that promotion of someone to Chunin is not a popularity contest," the Professor stated as he shook his head. "My old teammates tried to tell me that I was being sentimental. You don't stand up to one of the Three Ninja and derail his plan by only being lucky. But I'm too old, Jiraiya. Orochimaru might have actually killed me this last time."

"Whoa! Whoa! Not it!" the big shinobi said as quickly as possibly, looking comically terrified.

"No, you aren't the right personality to lead Konoha unless I have no choice. So I need you to find your _other_ old team mate and tell her she is to return to Konoha to meet me or be considered a Missing Ninja. And you can tell her I don't have time to coddle her wallowing in her grief. This is a direct order, Jiraiya," the old man told him in a _very_ hard voice.

"You have got to be kidding me." Jiraiya realized after a long moment that his teacher really wasn't. "Look, let me try to convince her first before you lay out the big guns. And give me Naruto. I think it would be a good idea to keep him with you or myself at this point. _They_ are starting to move and it would be bad for him to be by himself."

"That... could work. Tell Naruto to come by the Tower to get his flack jacket and first solo assignment as a chunin. Tell his teammates to show up for their promotion at the same time." He would have to send a message to Haruno, that Nara and both Hyuga also. That would send a _very_ strong message to the rest of the villages. "On another matter, you need to watch out for Stone ninja. The Tsutchikage thinks that Naruto is the Fourth's son." Hiruzen then chuckled. "And that Sheila is his daughter."

"Well, a 50 % ratio of being right and wrong isn't bad. Maybe I should have told him to not summon the toads to fight, but I didn't actually expect him to improve so rapidly. It seems he figured out that you get the memories of your shadow clones." Jiraiya frowned. "Could the girl be from one of Minato's previous girlfriends?"

"She's not from Konoha. In fact, I believe she said she came from across the Eastern Ocean from _before_ the age of the Sage of Six Paths."

"I thought she was just a genin? Something isn't adding up here, Old Man," the Toad Sage asked in confusion.

"She's a mistaken summon from the past, Jiraiya. An orphan of time." The Hokage snickered at Jiraiya's confusion, the first sign of his normal humor. "Yes, I'm positive. I was the one that accidentally summoned her with a scroll I was trying to make."

"So she's from hundred of years in the past? That's amazing, Professor." Jiraiya was considering the matter. "So she has advanced, ancient secrets that are her secret."

"No, not like you think. She's also the demon container of the One-Tailed Beast; Shukaku."

"You trust her that much?" Jiraiya almost shouted as he leaned over the desk to loom over his old teacher.

"No... Sheila did _that_ on her own. And even did a genjitsu trick so they didn't realize the demon was missing. She really leverages the Shadow Clone technique to its fullest. Jiraiya... don't tell anyone that she is its container. If _They_ don't know, they can't send someone after her."

"Tricky, Professor, tricky. I like it." The sage had to chuckle and then start to laugh, scaring the chunin assistant outside the Hokage's office.

* * *

Sakura looked down the row, taking in the other genin. Sasuke was down at the far end, next to both of his team mates; the annoying Naruto and that harridan Sheila. The bored looking Shikamaru seemed to be studying the clouds outside, but that was probably not something to bet on. Hinata and Shino were there representing their team, while Neji looked angry and aloof at being in the same room with his cousin. And then herself, of course.

The Hokage stood up from behind his desk, Shikamaru's father at his side along with everyone's jonin team leader. Asuma was next to his father, while Kakashi looked nearly as bored as Shikamaru. Inoichi gave Sakura a wink while Kurenai stood impassively.

Hiruzen looked over the large batch of kids that were about to be promoted. "This has been an amazing year. Each of you showed that you are excellent ninja with the skills necessary to advance to the chunin rank. This does not mean you do not have things to learn. You are new to your rank and you have to learn to lead," the Hokage explained. "But in the furnace of battle, you proved that you have the Will of Fire."

"Pardon me, Lord Hokage, are you saying all of us are being made chunin?" Shikamaru asked in confusion.

"Ah, thinking that some of you are not yet leaders? Or are not powerful enough to be considered chunin?" Hiruzen smiled at him for that. "But being a chunin means not being as strong as a jonin. There will be times when you will have to fight far above your power like Sakura or Neji. How you reacted said a lot about what you are and might become."

The branch member of the Hyuga had a truly ferocious scowl on his face for a second before he could school it to passivity.

"Or deal with seeming unstoppable bloodlines... or worse." The Third Hokage looked over them all. "For these reasons, you are all being promoted. And yes-" Hiruzen was looking at Shikamaru and Sheila for this. "-this will send a very powerful message to our foes."

The jonin captains handed out the chunin flak jackets to their students. Sakura had happened to let herself be moved close to Sasuke, who actually nodded to her. "Oh?" the pink-haired girl asked as she tugged at her jacket. She was glad it was actually optional for most missions.

"I see you got past that useless girly stage you were stuck at. I can actually respect you a little bit," the last Uchiha said finally.

Her heart soared at that even as the voice in the back of her mind started laughing. 'So all you had to do to get his attention was _be_ a kunoichi. We're going to beat Ino no problem!' Inner-Sakura shouted out in her mind.

"Um, thanks."

"Everyone but Uzumaki, you are dismissed. Chunin Uzumaki, you have an escort mission that leaves in one hour," the hokage called out.

The rest of the new chunin all stepped out.

"Team 7... Sasuke and Sheila... you are no longer my genin, though we will hopefully work together," Kakashi said as he tried to hide some of his emotion at losing the team he really had not wanted. Felt compelled by history and obligations, but not really wanted. But now the legacy of Obito and Minato were spreading their own wings.

* * *

It was a day later that Sasuke and Sheila were walking to meet Kakashi at a restaurant for their celebration. They were meeting up with Shikamaru, Shino and Hinata along with their jonin leaders. And, if Sheila surmised correctly, Maito Gai and Neji Hyuga.

She blinked as she spotted a figure being dragged back down the road, carried by Asuma Sarutobi and Maito Gai. "Kakashi?" He was in some sort of systematic neurological shock, as if he had been tortured for days with genjitsu. In a single bound, she landed next to them "What happened to him?"

"We were attacked by Itachi," Kurenai said, looking a bit battered herself. "He was here for Naruto." She had been surprised to discover that both of his teammates knew of his tenant.

"Itachi?" Sasuke echoed in shock from behind them all where he had been unseen. Then suddenly he was rushing off off in the direction they had come from. He was a literal blur.

"Sheila, you can't just leave to chase after him! Only bring Sasuke back! Do not leave the village!" Asuma shouted out as she took off after him. "Dammit. Kids these days."

Sheila poured on the speed as she hit nearly three hundred miles an hour. Various ninja thought it was someone trying to escape using the body flicker technique and tried to keep up, only to realize that it was something different than they had seen before. She appeared in front of Sasuke at the bridge. "Slow down a second!" she called out.

"Get out of my way," the last loyal Uchiha snarled.

"Look, you want to track down your brother for revenge. I understand that. Vengeance is a major thing of my family. But if you leave the village without attempting to get authorization, you might be declared a missing ninja. And how can you rebuild your clan in that case?" she argued.

"This is a clan business. As long as I am not currently on a mission, it has precedence," he snapped back.

"I was given a direct order by a jonin. One second. How about this. You create a shadow clone to come with me and I create one of my special shadow clones to go with you. This _could_ be a trap and we have the security of your clan to take into consideration. My clone will assist you with tracking down Itachi," the demigoddess said while thinking furiously.

"I... That will work," Sasuke decided. Backup while taking on his brother would not be a bad idea. Especially with someone that was actually better at fighting than him. Even with his Sharingan. And to be honest Sheila was one of the few he'd want to have help him in a fight.

They both created a pair of shadow clones. Sheila then put her hand upon the sternum of her clone and very carefully created her ichor-link seal and put half of her legend within the clone. It was now nearly as powerful as she was.

"What is that seal?" the black-haired boy asked as his Sharingan deactivated.

"Something I think only I could probably use. At least without having as much chakra as Naruto and as much control as the Hokage," she explained. And even that was improbable without the ichor of the gods within your blood.

Sasuke took off with her shadow-seal clone while she headed back to the gate with his shadow clone. She and Sasuke's clone appeared at the gate. "Chunin Sheila reporting in. Sasuke Uchiha is headed out on clan business."

The chunin looked at the two newly promoted kids. "Uh, he's right there."

"I'm not. This is just a shadow clone," the fake Sasuke said. "But Sheila convinced me that I should do the paperwork, even if I was leaving before I could get it dealt with."

"Better than Anko. She usually lets us know that she left after she gets back. You two, go let the hokage know."

* * *

"This technique better not be something to just keep me occupied," Naruto accused Jiraiya the Toad Sage. He had a balloon in his hand and was trying to pop it with just chakra control.

"Look, brat, this is the prized technique of the Fourth-!" the older, big man was saying as he suddenly moved to intercept a mishappen blur zooming towards them.

"Chunin Sheila and Sasuke arriving!" the seal-shadow clone of Sheila announced. "Itachi is on his way after having defeated Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma and Maito."

"Itachi is on his way here? Why?" the Sannin asked seriously.

"They said he was after Naruto," Sasuke said as he slipped of Sheila's back. That speed... he would figure out how she ran so fast. That had been exhilerating.

"Hmm. That's not good. I'm not sure I can defend you boy and fight off Itachi and his partner," Jiraiya said seriously.

"Should we prioritize setting up a trap or making Naruto disappear?" Sheila asked intently as she was already thinking ahead.

"Protecting Naruto, but defeating and driving off these two... that will make them more cautious," the Sannin thought aloud. "I like the way you think."

"Okay, Naruto, we'll need you to stay here but disappear back to your master seal," Sheila explained. "The Hokage agrees with your plan. He's gathering several special jonin and chunin teams."

"Uh, I don't have a master seal," Naruto said in confusion. "What's that?"

"You can do the space-time technique without the master seal? They are all supposed to be linked and make the chakra cost..." Sasuke stopped as he considered things. "Naruto, how much chakra do you use to activate the technique?" He had gotten his version of the Flying Thundergod technique down to about a single shadowclone, or about one-fifth of his chakra.

"Um, about as much as ten shadow clones?"

"You kids are really amazing. The Fourth never did manage to teach it to me. And he was my student," Jiraiya said with a laugh. "You two, go to town under a transformation and follow us back to our hotel. We'll stay at the Velvet Glove."

And with that, they took off.

* * *

Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki walked into the roaring festival town. The shark-like ex-Mist ninja was carefully taking a look around. "Are you sure you saw two chunin making better time than we did here?"

"My eyes never lie," Itachi said stoically. Though he was wondering at the bloodline ability that would allow for such fleet running speed.

"It still shouldn't take long to track down the demon container. What do we do about Jiraiya?" Kisame did not like to admit to anything, but the sannin would be a major hindrance.

"We will have to distract him, which should be easy enough," the traitor to Konoha said flatly.

Two hours later, they made their move. The lecherous 'Sage of Toads' was distracted by a comely trio of women that Itachi had put under a genjitsu to make him seem very irresistible. They then casually entered the inn that they two were staying and and Itachi knocked at the door.

"Hello?" Naruto asked after opening the door casually, looking quite innocent and vulnerable.

"Trap," Itachi called out to his partner.

Kisame snapped his mouth closed even as he reached for the wrapped up sword on his back as Naruto clones poofed out of their transformation as light sconces and vases on a table. "Get 'em!" the clones shouted.

Itachi stabbed out fast at the boy in front of him, cutting arm and revealing a dark-haired boy. "Sasuke?" He grabbed his younger brother as he started to charge up some form of electrical attack, tossing him right through a wall.

The shark-man lashed out with his sword, popping two clone, but six avoided the attack and then threw kunai at him. "Sheesh, I'm definitely going to cut off this nuisance's legs," Kisame groused even as his huge, wrapped sword deflected the kunai into random directions.

The older Uchiha kept an eye on his brother even as he tried to determine which of these was the real one. It was only the supernatural sight picking up movement on a brass fitting in the hallway that allowed him to spot a kunai coming from what appeared to be the empty room that Sasuke had come from. His senses screaming danger, he replaced himself with the brass light fixture.

It disintegrated in a blizzard of brass shavings as Sheila finished her Flying Thundergod technique. "What?" she asked in shock, not able to believe she actually missed hitting him from behind and ambush. Her head raised up slightly to look around, catching two red eyes with spinning blades in them in her too perfect vision.

"Tsukuyomi," Itachi said as he activated his eye-bloodline technique.

Sheila could feel the genjitsu activating, even as she struggled to build up her chakra and release it, but everything disappeared and she appeared in a negative, black and white world under a blasted red sky. She struggled against the cross she was bound to with ropes, narrowing her eyes

_"You are too dangerous to live," Itachi declared. "I don't know how you can figured out that technique, but it dies with you. For the next 72 hours, you will experience unending death." And with that, the many clones of Itachi started to stab her over and over with many katana._

_"Ergh," she tried to scream out as ten Itachi clones ran her through._

_The scene reset under the red sky, leaving her surrounded by the many figures of Itach Uchiha._

_"Seventy-one hours and fifty-nine minutes left," he said after._

_"Obviously, this is a purely mental damage," Sheila said as she gritted her teeth. The pain was much more than she knew she could personally withstand physically. She screamed in agony as she was impaled and stabbed again._

_"Seventy-one hours and fifty-eight minutes left," Itachi said in his flat way._

_"You know, a katana is a poor stabbing weapon," she noted, just before the many figures stabbed her again, causing her to scream in agony._

_Again and again._

In the real world, Sheila collapsed to one knee. "What- is- that Sharingan?" After the first day of dying, she had nearly shut off, but stubbornly resisted. After the second day, she thought she would go mad. And on the third day, she was sure she _had_ gone mad.

Kisame frowned. "Another person that survived your eyes, Itachi. Is it weakening?"

"That should have killed any chunin," the traitor said with narrowed eyes.

The chirping of birds came from the whole that Sasuke had been thrown through as he came out like a blazing lightning bolt, nearly clipping Itachi. "I've lived only to hate you!" the younger sibling shouted as he struck.

* * *

Back in Konoha in a ready room, the real Sheila sagged sideways and then collapsed on the ground. "What- is- that Sharingan?" she muttered as her cheek lay on the ground.

"Sheila!" Naruto shouted out. "What happened to her?"

"She must have gotten hit by that same genjitsu that Kakashi is in the hospital with. We'll have to hope that Jiraiya can deal with the attackers himself," Inoichi said as he clenched his fist.

"No way," the real Naruto shouted. "I can get us... well, some of us there!"

Kurenai and Asuma shared a quick look.

"Take the jonin. And come back immediately. That's an order," Sarutobi said in a hard tone.

"I'll come back with Sheila, Sasuke and Pervert Sage for sure!" he promised even as he he had the three jonin put their hands upon his shoulder and then instantly teleported into the battle even as the Hokage called for medic ninja to take Sheila to the hospital.

"You don't have enough hate yet," Itachi was saying, only to look up in surprise at the arrival of the four new people as they charged out of the room. He let the broken form of Sasuke drop to the ground.

"That enough out of you," boomed a big voice. "You didn't really think that girl would distract me, did you?" Jiraiya stood at the end of the hall, while the three jonin and Naruto stood in the other way.

"What the hell? How did they get here!" Kisame asked in frustration as he readied his Samehada for a battle.

"Flying Thundergod technique, Naruto style!" the self-proclaimed next hokage called out.

"Kisame, we need to retreat from here _now_," Itachi ordered. "There's no way we can defeat three jonin and Jiraiya of the Sannin."

The two members of Akatsuki suddenly split up, smashing through two walls in opposite directions even as they both used two techniques. Itachi's left eye spat black flame behind him even as Kisame unleashed a huge barrier of water and fled.

"Naruto, I need you to take Sasuke and Sheila back to Konoha," the Sannin called out. "The four of us are going to chase after them a while. They are too wily to be caught, but it will force them to run further."

"Okay, Pervert Sage. You'll keep my kunai with a seal on it so I can catch up to you tomorrow?" Naruto asked.

"Yup! You still need to learn that cool technique, huh?"

Asuma, Kurenai and Inoichi all shared a measured look.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Maito Gai shouted out as he blitzed into the hall and punched Jiraiya in the face, knocking him back. "Don't worry, friends, with our youth and passion, we can defeat these scoundrels easily!"

"Maito... that's Jiraiya," Kurenai said in a pained tone of voice.

"Really?"

"Yes," Inochi remarked.

Gai looked sheepish. "Oops."

* * *

Sheila swam to wakefulness painfully and tried to blink. She seemed to be shackled down somehow.

"Don't bother. It took quite a bit of effort to discover you were behind my recent... setbacks. Removed from all ninja duties, my rank as jonin revoked and all my plans in ruin." The deep voice lacked any anger, but that could just be a carefully controlled persona. "I have had my ROOT removed from my control. ANBU and the Hokage's Torture and Investigation are enrolling them into his own ranks. Like Hiruzen has ever had the stomach to make the hard choices."

"What are you doing?" Sheila asked the man as she tried to sort out the feelings in her eyes. It took her a moment to realize her eyes were _gone_.

"I am going to rebuild. And you will be the first seed to replant my ROOT. Konoha can not survive in this world without my hand guiding destiny from the shadows," the man said. "I will break you down and rebuild you into a true kunoich; without the flaws of emotions and with my purpose to guide you."

"You think merely taking my eyes will force me to join you?" she asked incredulously.

"No, it is merely the first step. I will keep them upon myself at all times. If you escape... I will destroy them. A blind ninja is worthless." With that, he shuffled out of the room, the sound of his cane tapping across the floor before the door closed behind it.

Sheila bent her legend to continue listening, hearing him move down the hallway and about fifty fee away he started to move up the stairs. She tried to sit up in the bed, only to discover that she was tied down with heavy shackles. She might be able to break free with great effort, but she was not her Uncle Hercules. So she needed to fight smarter, not harder.

She shifted her mind to her other body in her shadow-seal and sat up in the bed at the hospital. She looked over at another Sheila laying unconscious. Probably one of the old man's clones transformed. Most people would not catch it for a while. Sheila tried to sneak out of the bed without making a nose, but rustled the cloth and had to stop.

That was actually pretty smart of him, even if he didn't know that she was one mind in two bodies. Which was why she had not tried to double team Neji constantly in the finals. At least her clone actually still had its eyes. Listening carefully, she overhead several medics moving around. It appeared they did not think she, Sasuke and Kakashi would recover any time soon. Especially considering they had all both been in a coma for days.

The mysterious person that had kidnapped her would probably return to her real body to start trying to brainwash her or something. But he had her eyes...

Concentrating, she created a temporary beacon for the space-time technique. If she could not capture the man and recover her eyes, she would have to come back here and pretend to be in a coma still. She created a shadow clone silently under the covers and then disappeared to appear next to her real body and her Flying Thundergod Seal upon her ankle.

She blinked as she took in the heavy shackles and chakra-suppression seals upon her body. "Damn that- Urghk?" Suddenly, she could not speak as her tongue's muscles seized up. She checked her real body's tongue, finding a silence seal. She _could_ break it, but better not quite yet.

The clone immediately started to check the area out out, finding it was a very small hidden base only six rooms, probably underground in Konoha. It looked very private, which would probably explain why the Hokage had missed it. She almost whistled as she saw the jars of eyes, they narrowed her eyes in as she took in the red eyes with two or three tomoe everywhere. Sharingan.

She had studied how to transplant eyes, but this was only going to be temporary as she liked her own eyes perfectly fine, thank you. If she could pull it off with these preserved abominations... And Sasuke would probably be pissed as hell. She quickly gathered all but one pare of eyes that had three tomoe and quickly sealed them away in a scroll from a cabinet. Then she took the last pair of eyes and quickly moved to her real body and checked the eye-holes for boobytraps.

This jerk must have decided that the silence seal was enough. Her hands glowed green, even as their stomach rumbled from hunger. She would have to grab some food and soldier pills.

* * *

Danzo awoke the next morning and prepared for his day. He covered the abomination of his Sharingan eye and almost useless wooden arm. If only he could have gotten that medical treatment from Orochimaru or his lackey. But that was water under the bridge.

It was time to start breaking in his new, BLACK ROOT as he was already thinking of her. She was a very remarkable specimen and even better, Sarutobi would have no idea that she was turned. He walked down the hidden passageway in his basement and through several quarters of the underground city. Few people realized that there even existed an under-Konoha. His chakra was the only thing that could open this door.

He frowned for just a second as he thought he had caught a minor scent, but continued on... cautiously. He opened his private interrogation room, seeing the figure laying there with empty eyes. "Are you ready to begin, child? When I am done with you, you will be truly powerful-"

He barely dodged the lethal cut at his neck as a Sheila with red eyes sliced at it with a kunai. She came back with another swing that he had to block with his wooden arm. It severed it at the forearm.

"Damn you. How dare you?" Danzo declared with a one-eyed glare. So he was surprised when a kunai flickered past him and he saw a flash.

"Got it!" the clone Sheila called out as she snagged the glass, medical container with her eyes in it from his robes. "And not damaged at all."

"I warned you of consequences," the old man with the cross-shaped scar on his cheek. He made a one-handed seal and the ten-feet of space-time around the eyes and the Sheila clone imploded.

Sheila _felt_ herself die within the reversed Four Trigram Seal. Her hands were already going through hand gestures to unleash the storm technique when she felt something invading her mind.

"Calm down. I can recover your eyes-" the old warhorse of Konoha tried to say, desperately attempting to salvage the situation.

"Actually, I _know_ you are lying," she cut him off as her eyes blocked the genjitsu. "My clone just exploded with my eyes. You are dead, bastard." Curving beams of light hacked into Danzo even as he desperately tried to dodge. Her hands went through a different double technique and unleashed a blizzard of ice within a small area.

A man who had once been the second choice for the third hokage died raging against his fate, frozen in the middle of a massive ice crystal. Sheila stared at him with her replacement eyes and then turned away. Walking out the door, she slammed her fist against the wall, cracking it.

* * *

"Chunin Sheila requesting an audience with the hokage," she said just an hour later in the anteroom of the Hokage's office. She was back in uniform with her chunin flack vest over her very basic black and white leaf-pattern outfit that had only changed slightly from what she had worn at the academy. The addition of a high-necked T-shirt to the gi covered up the many seals imprinted upon her body.

"The hokage is quite busy unless this is a matter of importance?" the older chunin said with a grin. She frowned as as he realized that Sheila had her eyes closed. "Is there a problem?"

"It's not an emergency, but I would like to report a kidnapping and the death of the kidnapper," she replied flatly.

"Well, deaths usually get his attention." She walked into the office and then returned in just a minute. "He'll see you now."

Sarutobi stared at the girl as she walked into the room with her eyes closed. "It's good to see you up and about. I actually had not heard that you had been released from the hospital. And what is this matter of a kidnapping and death?"

"I wasn't released, I was kidnapped from the hospital. Probably a day or so ago by a shinobi that was complaining that you took his 'ROOT' away. He removed my eyes and was starting to work on brainwashing me into loyalty to himself," she began to explain the story.

The Third Hokage's face became more grim as she continued. "This accusation is very serious. Unfortunately, I can see Danzo believing that he was above my decree for him to retire."

"Well, I guess I retired him permanently. Kakashi and Sasuke are both still in a coma?" she asked.

"Yes. So you have two Sharingan..." Sarutobi frowned at that. "Why did you implant them into you?"

"So I wasn't at a disadvantage when I confronted him. These eyes... are just about worthless. I can use them, but without being able to turn them off, I'm effectively blind unless I can figure out how the Uchiha can deactivate them. And I suspect that it isn't that easy, otherwise Kakashi would have done that already." The blind girl frowned, very upset. "I need to let them fully heal into place anyways." She would have to start making it a priority to actually learning how to heal faster with her ichor.

"I'm putting you on medical leave for now. I've sent for one of my students and she might be able to help," the Hokage explained as he leaned from in his chair, studying her. "I'll need you to lead two ANBU to take possession of Danzo's body. Can you lead them to him even blind as you are?"

"Easily enough," she said with a shrug.

"Rooster, hawk; go with her."

The two ANBU appeared with a poof of smoke.

"Just put your hands upon my shoulder and we'll be there in a flash." Once she felt their hands on her shoulder she transported them to a seal she had made under the bed in that base under Konoha. "He should be over there," she said, pointing towards the blisteringly cold to her left.

"Very well. You should head home or to the hospital," Hawk ordered even as he moved over to the huge block of ice that encased the very dead form of Danzo.

"Fine." With another handseal, she appeared back in her room where a nurse was shouting.

"One of our patients bodies has disappeared and you want to hide it?" the young man snapped out to the head medic ninja as they stood next to an empty bed.

"Hmm. I'll have to mention that to the Hokage. He might want to know if you are covering up for Danzo," Sheila said as she turned towards the other half of the room. "I doubt he was able to remove my eyes himself, which means he had to have a skilled medic do it for him."

"That's an absurd accusation," the medic ninja bluffed. "You probably just left on your own. And to accuse Danzo of such actions... you are obviously too young to remember the great things he did in the last Great Ninja War."

"Considering I killed Danzo... yes, I do dare to accuse him," she replied casually as she dispelled her own shadow clone that had been lying here. "I bet you were the one in charge. The Hokage-"

She heard the rustle as the medic charged her, snapping her eyes open. The older medic ninja had green-glowing chakra scalpels out as he lashed out in a lethal attack. But with the Sharingan, she could see where he was going to move and dodged with superhuman ability.

"Sharingan?" the old man with gray hair blurted out.

"Well, Danzo had stolen my eyes. So I had to improvise." She blitzed in between his attacks, her new eyes letting her see where he would attack. She then put everything into a very heavy rabbit punch that folded the medic over. "I'm sure the Hokage will want to speak to you. Well, probably his Torture and Investigation... but that's how things fall."

"I, uh, think I'll go get the ANBU," the assistant said as he quickly ran off.

"Thanks for thinking of the patient and not just assuming I had run off," she called out with a smile, even as she closed her eyes and sat back on her bed. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

It was a week later when Naruto started banging on her apartment's door early in the morning. "Sheila! Sheila!"

She opened the door, peeking her eyes for just a second. "Yes? Back already?"

"I need your help! Tsunade and Jiraiya are being attacked by Orochimaru and that Kabuto guy!" He reached forward and grabbed her even as his other hand made a hand-seal and transported him to a battlefield.

Sheila opened her mouth to berate him and then shrugged. She needed to vent some frustration anyway. She took in the form of Jiraiya on the top of Gambuta facing off against Orochimaru on top of his boss snake, Manda. There were two unknown ninja fighting against Kabuto, though the older woman appeared to be in shock and blood-splattered, kneeling on the ground. Strangely, the blood was not hers.

"Oh, so that's where that clone went to," Kabuto said from over the body of a Naruto that was bleeding heavily.

"Stabbed through the heart?" the girl asked through her slightly-slitted eyes. "Well, we can't have that."

"Oh, and what are you going to do?" the traitor medic-ninja asked.

"Heal him, of course." In fact, she had already turned his most grievous wounds into merely life threatening ones. "Now its time to kill a traitor." She opened her eyes fully so that the three tomoe were plainly visible. A kunai appeared in her hands. "Damn, I should have told Naruto after the exams that you were Orochimaru's spymaster in Konoha." She flew over the ground, passing the dark-haired woman laying on the ground.

"Watch out, he uses chakra scalpels," Shizune called out even as she continued to heal her cuts. She blinked as her wounds suddenly became just bruises instead of cut ligaments. "What?"

Sheila skidded across the ground to move into position, flinging her kunai as hard as possible at Kabuto and then back-peddling as fast as possible to avoid the swiping green chakra-scalpels. "Hmm. It's probably a good thing I have these eyes right now."

Manda screamed in agony as the kunai hit him like a cannon ball, distracting him just as Gambuta sliced out at him. The boss snake dove below the ground even as Orochimaru frowned at her as he leaped free. "That girl again. Kabuto, if you fail to kill her I will make you regret it dearly." He then ducked a Rasengan from Jiraiya.

"Only good for taking on little girls, eh?" the Toad Sage asked with a smirk on his face.

"I will have her secrets. And her having those eyes... that's a wonderful turn of events," the golden-eyed Sannin with a smirk.

"You know... I don't really get that title. Three Ninja. Are you sure you guys weren't name because someone yelled out, 'Get those damned three ninja!'?" Sheila quipped, feeling more alive as she kept barely ahead of Kabuto.

"Well, if you can make jokes, I guess I can't hold back as much," the traitor said, glinting the sun off of his glasses. He slashed out easily twice as face, only to blink as he chakra scalpels only sliced the top of her skin just a little bit.

"Hmm. Those are awfully sharp." Gold flowed across Sheila's skin again, turning her into a living statue of gold again. She then made a hand-sign and ten clones appeared as she spent her chakra miserly. She had not fully recovered from trying to figure out a way to turn off the Sharingans.

"Shadow clones. Never as good at the original," Kabuto noted as he lashed out at two clones with his scalpels. So he was quite surprised when they did not pop and had to roll with one of their punches that nearly took his head off. "Not even scratched?"

Sheila frowned as she realized she was nearly at the end of her legend, feeling tapped out... ordinary. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the woman with a diamond mark on her forehead finally moved to desperately heal the real Naruto as his clone watched on anxiously. Gambuta was being squeezed to death by Manda even as Jiraiya and Orochimaru dueled with earth techniques that were tearing up the ground in large swaths. Shizune dashed back over to help fight Kabuto.

Sheila then zipped over to the 'short' katana of thirty-five feet that the toad had dropped, probably weighing over ten tons of steel and wood. She leaped up along the blade and kicked out with a massive burst of chakra, something she rarely did. The gigantic blade was kicked into the air and then she threw it with all her might. Being much lighter weight than the katana, she went one direction one way very fast while the sword landed in Gambatu's out stretched hand, barely moved fifty feet.

The boss toad then grinned. "Can't duck under ground now, can you?" He swiped at the snake, cutting it severely.

Manda hissed in vexation, ignoring a kunai that bounced off his head. At least he did until a figure appeared to snatch the spinning blade out of the air. "Hi, Orichimaru's lackey summon!" the golden figure called out, even as she gathered the last bit of chakra left in her rapidly dwindling supply and punched the snake on the crown of its head.

With a poof, the snake disappeared, even as Sheila had to close her eyes. She was cursing the Sharingan the entire time. "So, big guy? Can you help run off Orochimaru and his apprentice?" She hissed as she felt the cursed seal trying to expand on her neck. So when she felt the toad summon disappear, she almost swore quite loudly.

"Those eyes... those techniques... come to me when you want power," Orochimaru said from right behind her. His punch to the back of her head stunned her quite severely.

Her figure sent off glints of light as she pinwheeled through the air to plow through trees. "Ooph. Like I'd want to deal with a loser mortal like you."

"Loser mortal? Ah, you don't know. I'm perfect... immortal... all I require is a new body every few years," the snake sannin said as he dashed across the ground, dodging a Rasengan that slammed into the ground where he had stood.

"Come back here, you snake!" Jiraiya snapped out as he dashed after his old team mate.

"Oh, so you are a loser undead body-stealing abomination. That's so much better," she said woozily as she staggered back up to her feet as her sheath of golden armor dribbled off her like magical water. "And I can't believe I called you a stupid mortal. That curse seal must be messing with my head. And I feel really weak and light-headed. Isn't that a sign of severe chakra depletion?"

"You wouldn't be able to stand up at all," the younger woman Shizune said as she pushed the twelve-year old girl back down as Tsunade nearly took off Orochimaru's head with a punch.

"Kukukukuku... I guess it is time to leave. Tsunade is actually functional again. And even I can't handle both of the other Sannin," the traitor said with an inane smile upon his face. His apprentice Kabuto was already gone. With that, he dove into the ground.

"No!" Sheila shouted, leaping to where he had gone to ground, slamming her fist down with over a three thousand pounds of force and made a very small crater. She cracked open her eyes for a second and felt a horrible drain.

"Kid, you need to relax," Tsunade said with a pat on the girl's shoulder.

"Haveta- beats'em-failureno-mother-" the girl started to mumble as she trembled with her fist implanted in the ground. Her eyes suddenly rolled up into her head and she face-planted into the ground.

Tsunade blinked and had her turned over, quickly closing her eyes. A quick medical technique to scan her vitals and she was frantically patting her outfit. "Soldier pills. At least three. Now."

"Three? That's nearly a lethal dosage. And we don't know if she's used any recently-" her young apprentice said in shock.

"She's already dying, this just might save her life." The slug sannin had found her stash of soldier pills and quickly crushed three of them into Sheila's mouth and forced her to swallow.

"Granny? Is she going to be all right?" the revived Naruto asked.

"I'd give her a 50-50 chance if we were in Konoha, but here her chances are less than ten percent-"

Naruto looked uncommonly serious as he put his hand on her shoulder and activated his own version of the space-time technique appearing back in his apartment where two clones were arguing over a new seal. "Come on, Granny! The hospital is just down the road! I'm not going to let my team mate die! No matter what!"

Tsunade Senju, prodigal daughter of Konoha, turned and picked up the dying girl and smashed out the window in her haste. A quick glance instantly told her where she was and with a ninety-degree turn was rushing towards the hospital with a speed that few jonin could hope to match. The door to the hospital smashed open.

"Emergency triage for a kunoichi that has _severe_ levels of chakra exhaustion," she shouted out in a commanding tone that got everyone following her order.

* * *

The Third Hokage stepped into the hospital just as his old student was walking to the door. "Tsunade. Naruto." He studied them for a long moment. "Walk with me."

"Hey, Old Man! Do you think Sheila will be all right? And why does she have those types of eyes?" the young blonde boy asked.

"She was kidnapped by Danzo. He was planning on brainwashing her and the first step of doing that, he removed her eyes," the Hokage explained as he led them back to the Hokage's tower. "How is the girl?"

"She'll live. I don't know _how_ anyone that chakra-depleted could survive, but her body is dealing with the soldier pill's toxicity better than I thought possible." Tsunade was a bit apprehensive. She had been hoping to skip town before her old teacher could catch up to her.

"She's been trying to figure out how to 'deactivate' the Sharingan eyes she was forced to implant them. This is actually the second time in the last few days she's been treated for chakra exhaustion," Hiruzen explained as they walked.

A rat-masked ANBU opened the door ahead of them, letting them into the administration building.

Naruto was looking down as he followed them up the stairs to the Hokage's office. "I caused this, didn't I? I mean, I didn't ask, I just grabbed her to help save Granny here."

"And she saved your life," the Slug Sannin noted with a grin down to the young blond. "Old Man, what aren't you telling me?"

"Quite a bit, actually." He sat down behind his mostly cleared off desk. "There are secrets she has that only the Hokage can know." Naruto plopped down in a seat across from him, shifting his chunin jacket.

She glared down at the old, shrunken man. "You are not seriously trying to bribe me into your job, are you?"

"Of course not. I intend to ask you to take the position of Hokage because Konoha needs you. If it helps you make that decision... well hinting at mysterious things doesn't hurt either. And Sheila has many secrets." He gave her a wintry grin. "It is good to see you. I was afraid that I would only see you in the next life."

The old woman couldn't answer for a long time as she bit her lip while trying to suppress her emotions. "I didn't think I could come back, but Naruto is very convincing. And says he's actually part of my old clan. I thought there was only a single family left. And their names are not Uzumaki."

"Through Whirlpool, of course. The relation is tenuous and through the First Hokage. I believe he's your second cousin twice-removed." Hiruzen just let himself enjoy meeting his old student.

"Well, I still don't think I'm the best for your job," she tried to argue.

"Tsunade... princess... Orochimaru nearly killed me. If not for two _genin_ I don't know if I would be here. Trapped in a barrier with my murderous student and two resurrected Hokages, even I don't think I could have won without sacrificing myself to a Shinigami to bind their souls. I retired over twelve years ago because I was no longer the strongest of Konoha. And your village needs you, princess." His voice was gentle, even as he could see the metaphorical barbs striking home. "Who is going to stop Orochimaru next time? Minato was supposed to be my successor after-"

"The Fourth Hokage..." Naruto suddenly said. "Who was he? And why is Jiraiya teaching me all of his special techniques?" Even Naruto had heard the rumors that had come from summoning toads and using the Flying Thundergod.

"I was going to wait until you got back and could settle in, but I guess this is as good a time as any. He was your father, of course." Hiruzen Sarutobi chuckled at Naruto's comical face. "The Rock came to Konoha to find the Fourth's child, thinking it was Sheila and tried to get through you, the real heir."

"But I don't look- I-" Naruto's mind was almost blank as he tried to process that. "Why would he do that to me?"

Tsunade actually knew the answer. "Who would you trust the most? It is your family, Naruto. He put his faith in you, Naruto, that you would protect his Konoha."

"This is fairly common among the leaders of the villages. Gaara was the son of the Kazekage. It is rumored that the Raikage's brother is a demon container. But that does not keep it from being a hated position. The Tailed Demons... despair and death follow in their tracks. And few people can see the jailer for that," the Third Hokage said. He then turned to look at his old student. "Tsunade, why don't you visit Hojo's family. Maybe see if you can learn your grandfather's wood technique. I mean, if Naruto could learn it and pass it on to the rest of your family..."

That was _very_ tempting, she had to admit. "Fine. I'll stick around for now," she finally said.

* * *

Sheila awoke, the scent of hospital detergents and chemicals filling her nose. "Huh..."

"Well, at least you recover quickly. Only one day and you are somewhat better," the voice of Tsunade said to her. "I guess Naruto was right when he said you healed nearly as fast as a demon container. Some sort of regeneration bloodline?"

"Um, who are you? Other than that lady who was with Naruto and fighting against Orochimaru?" the chunin asked as she touched the heavy bandages over her eyes. That was probably for the better, though moving around without her eyes was going to be _hard_.

"I'm Tsunade the Sannin. And possibly I may become the Fifth Hokage, though that has not been decided yet." The old woman studied her carefully, noting that she seemed very aware of the area.

"And Naruto, since I can smell him," the girl noted from her bed.

"Yes, and Naruto. I really should have sent him home, but he wanted to stay here and check on you and your other teammate."

"How is Sasuke?" Sheila asked as she sat up.

"He's resting since I freed him and Kakashi from the mental ravages of that Sharingan genjitsu. Which you seemed to shrug off quite well," the sannin noted wryly.

Sheila slipped out of bed, but was stopped from doing anything else by the medic.

"You shouldn't be out of bed. I'm not even sure how you are alive," the older woman said as she reached out and grabbed the girl. How could she even move?

"As long as Naruto doesn't drag me off to any S-Rank fights, I should be fine. I have information that I have to give to Sasuke as quickly as possible." She tilted her head. "Is he still in room 203?"

"Yes, he has not been released or moved yet," Tsunade noted.

Sheila's toe poked out and hit Naruto's knee, forcing it to kick out and making him fall from his precarious perch. Then she went over to the cabinet and grabbed a few scrolls by touch.

"Hey! What was that for? Oh, Sheila! You're up! Huh? I thought you were going to be out for days?" He started to look around frantically to see what was going on. "Oh, Granny! Is it all right for her to be moving?"

"She hasn't fallen on her face yet, so I'll let her talk to the Uchiha brat," the woman said impishly.

Sheila tilted her head at that, hearing the smile. With her own shrug she walked out the door and headed down the hall and then around the corner with her hand trailing lightly on the wall.

Naruto was frowning as he tried to figure out how she could move around that easily. Tsunade nodded as she saw her moving her head slightly as if listening intently and making her her toe was always in front as she stepped.

Knocking on the door, she opened it when the disgruntled voice answered with, "Come in."

"So she was able to remove that neurological stress damage? Oh, hello Kakashi." Sheila smiled wanly at them both.

"What happened to your eyes?" their old jonin master asked.

"Kidnapped and had someone rip them out to hold as ransom so he could start brainwashing me." Sheila sat down in a seat (fumbling slightly) and then gripped the chair's arms tightly. "It appears he was a big fan of stealing eyes. He had over a dozen Sharingan."

"What!" Sasuke all but shouted from his bed as he sat up.

"I stole them from him. And killed him, but not before he made good on his threat to destroy my natural eyes. Just another failure on my part," she said morosely, the chair creaking in her grasp.

"That's... not good," Kakashi admitted from his own bed

"I planned for the worst, but I'm still mostly crippled, even with the two Sharingans I implanted-"

"So you stole my clan's eyes-" Sasuke snapped out, immediately putting her in that bracket of thieves.

"If you would just shut up a second? I can't _use_ them because I can't turn them off. It's nearly killed me once and let Orochimaru escape. Again." The chair shattered in her grasp and with a violent motion she stood up, turned and then kicked the chair (or what remained of it) right through the window. "Engh." She wanted to shout, to scream. So when Tsunade's hand grabbed her she tried to push it off. "Let me go, please. I haven't finished failing today."

Tsunade stared at her for a long moment. "No more violent actions or I'll sedate you myself." She then released the girl while wondering at her abnormal strength even in her weakened state.

"You might as well be the one to finish my career. I have to be the most useless kunoichi and daughter ever. All this power and I can't really succeed at anything _important_." She bit her thumb and slid her blood along a small seal on her forearm, grabbing the unsealed kunai. "I'm only deluding myself that I can continue on with these stupid eyes," she said hoarsely as she ripped off the tear-soaked bandages, revealing the whirling Sharingan.

She pressed the blade into his hand. Sasuke just looked at it numbly. "What?"

"I can't- I just can't keep these eyes and mine are gone. What sort of heroine loses her _eyes_?" she babbled. "So cut them out! They're useless anyways!"

"Stop it!" Naruto shouted. "You aren't useless! You're the one that we've been trying to catch up to. We'll figure out a way to help you." Tears had gathered at the edge of his eyes even as he clenched his hands into fists.

Sasuke raised up the kunai for a long moment, then gripped it tightly. "No, it isn't that easy. You took those eyes... so you have to earn them," the dark-haired boy said finally, then threw the kunai into the wall. "Damaged eyes can get stuck, but there is a trick that the Uchiha have for helping a stuck Sharingan."

Sheila collapsed to her knees, covering her red eyes with her hands. "I should be better than this. I'm supposed to be able to do miracles that are beyond- And I can't even figure these stupid eyes out." She started to sniffle and then sob.

"I think that's enough," Tsunade said. "Sasuke Uchiha, those eyes are a clan matter, but I think your teammate really needs you."

"I said I would help her, but I need to read some scrolls." He sent a furtive look at his old teacher. "I don't know that it will help you, since you've had your eye so long. And she has to become Uchiha." That would be weird.

The jonin gave him a little wave as if to say it was no big deal. "Unlike her, I still have one of my original eyes."

The sannin picked up the girl and then ran her hand with a glowing-green medic technique over her eyes again while also checking her chakra levels. "These are fully healed. They did nice work if you can see perfectly fine with them."

"I did it. Well, a shadow clone did it," Sheila said with a sniffle.

"Oh? Who taught you?" she asked curiously.

"I read a little bit in a scroll." And was about three years into her medical degree back in that far off past, she thought morosely.

"That's impossible," Tsunade said softly.

"Ha! You don't know her! She figured out how to mix chakra and single-handed seals to make bloodlines in like one day!" Naruto exclaimed.

The woman whom would become hokage blinked at the, then down at the girl with her eyes closed. "Really?" she asked.

"I'm supposed to do impossible things. That's my bloodline," she said with a sniffle. "I just suck at it."

* * *

Tsunade looked over the gathered jonin and chunin, the presence of her old mentor at her side. "So I declare here, on top of the Hokage Tower, that I am the Fifth Hokage!"

Konoha and the busts of the Hokages were visible behind her in the cliffside. The Third Hokage's teammates were both there, as was the highest ranking jonin, Shikaku Nara. While not the most powerful (that was a dubious debate between Kakashi Hatake and Maito Gai) he was considered the smartest.

"There are matters that I need to pass on to our new hokage. So if I may steal her away for a bit?" the old man called out to the gathered officers and leaders of Konoha's ninja.

Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane both tried to follow, but a firm shake of Tsunade's head and they left for their homes.

"All right, Professor, dazzle me with your secrets," the slightly younger woman said to the Third Hokage.

"It all started with a prank from Naruto. He had distracted me while I worked on one of my summoning contracts. So instead of summoning an owl... I summoned a girl from the far past," he explained as he sat on the opposite side of his old desk.

"If you said far past, you must mean it," Tsunade noted as she set the Hokage's hat to the side.

"Indeed. I figure her from being at least a thousand years in the past and before the Sage of Six Paths. In fact, she may even predate the Ten Tailed Beast that was sent to shatter civilization." Hiruzen had been thinking long and hard over that point. Who had sent it and why? "I thought she was merely from a far off place, but did not recognize her country."

"So she's an ancient, hmm? Yet that doesn't seem nearly enough. You want me to figure something out again?" she asked, discerning that he was testing her.

"No, this is not something like that. She's only half-human. And with her abilities, I have a hard time not believing her words when she declared she's the daughter of a goddess. Tsunade," he said to the suddenly disbelieving woman, "She figured out how to merge two chakra-types together to duplicate bloodlines after seeing an enemy ninja use a one-handed seal... once. She figured out the Fourth's prize space-time technique in her bid to figure out how to go back to her lands and _stole_ an enemies tailed demon while uncovering a treacherous attack."

"And she considers herself a failure?" the Fifth Hokage asked with a shake of her head.

"If your mother was a goddess?" Hiruzen let that sink in.

"Well, right now she is one of my ninja. Let's turn to other matters. Orochimaru and our other enemies.."

* * *

Sasuke nodded as he let his own Sharingan lapse to just normal, black eyes. Just like his family's scrolls had suggested, he had finally deactivated her 'stuck' Sharingan. "That took a lot out of me," he said while panting where he knelt on a tatami mat in his family residence.

"I think your eye is developing its third tomoe under that strain," Sheila replied as she activated and deactivated her uncovered (and unstuck) left eye. Her right eye was still covered up. "Huh, that's like... hard to describe. Like trying to get your chakra to go sideways in the eye." She tried to replicate that feeling in other eye, feeling a heavy strain. Then she tried to reverse it.

"So those eyes are really hard to fix or use?" Naruto asked curiously. He had invited himself along and somehow overcome any objection that Sasuke had come up with.

"Yes. Many bloodlines have severe penalties or are hard to activate. Over half of the Uchiha could not even use their eyes, though those that did were generally at least chunin or jonin in rank. My father and mother were both jonin in rank," Sasuke said in pride.

"Got it," she said. "That is _really_ funky feeling." She uncovered both of her eyes that were now solid black.

"That looks really odd on you," the other blond said. "You look funny without blue eyes."

"They were blue-green." She then grinned impishly as she waved her hand over eyes, swishing them blue-green again. "And they are again."

Sasuke activated his own Sharingan, trying to pierce the genjitsu. "That's not an illusion."

"Oh, good. I can still boost my eyes normally. I was afraid they wouldn't work like they used to." Of course, the blood flowing through them had her ichor within it. She zoomed in on bird sitting in a tree over five hundred feet away, admiring its eyes and plumage.

"Naruto, we have clan business to deal with," the pale dark-haired boy stated. "So could you please take yourself somewhere else?"

"Your brother, Itachi Uchiha? He's after Naruto because of the Nine Tailed Demon. So he is already involved," Sheila noted in a dry tone. "I have the One Tail that I stole from Gaara, though I hear he was actually happy to lose it." He and Temari had been sent back to the Village Hidden within the Sand a few days ago.

"Yeah, Akatsuki. Jiraiya tried to laugh it off, but he slipped that they are a group of S-Rank ninja that are after the tailed demons," Naruto explained as he waved his arms wildly.

"And Itachi is a member. Which means he has his own team." Sheila frowned at that. "And that shurikan-eye Sharingan... he beat Kakashi with it." She clenched her hand tight at that, as she realized that her old teacher was still above her and he had been taken out so easily.

"This doesn't get told to anyone outside this room, understood?" the last, loyal Uchiha said to both of his teammates. "You can evolve the Sharingan to a more powerful form, but there is cost. You have to murder your closest friend to do it."

"WHAT!" Naruto screamed out almost comically while pointing at Sasuke.

"That sounds like a paradox. If they are your closest friend... that is the sort that you would die _for,_ not murder. I would suspect its the highly charged emotional conflict at a chemical level. Unless there is an actual magical ritual you are doing?" the demigoddess asked curiously.

"Idiot. I'm trusting you with a big secret. And no, it's just the act of murdering your best friend that activates the Mangekyo Sharingan. Unless you think you can activate it some other way?" the intense young Uchiha almost demanded.

"Activate it on myself? Probably not... Kakashi?" the moment that both Sasuke and Naruto looked away, Sheila's hands flew through a series of hand-seals then met Sasuke's eyes as he turned back.

"Hey, I didn't see Kakashi out there," Naruto complained as he turned back.

Sheila raised her hand in the gesture for silence, even as Sasuke suffered through an illusionary, sudden attack of two Rock Ninja. One was an unknown (and rather bland creation) while Sheila used her knowledge of Kurotsuchi from the Chunin exam. She was sweating hard as she kept up the illusion while tricking Sasuke into thinking his Sharingan had already activated. That took a little trickery in showing things in black and white with seeing the flows of chakra through them as Sasuke thought he was learning techniques as she fought a battle entirely in his head.

As it was not a stretch of imagination for him to believe that his two friends could be defeated, Sasuke suddenly found himself confronted with a horrible situation after a brutal and short fight.

_"We can only take one," the fake Kurotsuchi said to her compatriot. Her eyes turned to the battered figure laying on the ground. "Which one lives, boy? Choose and we'll kidnap them. The other, well if you are quick you might be able to stop their bleeding out."_

_"What? You bastards!" Sasuke shouted out as best as he could, trying to struggle to his feet. "Don't you hurt her!"_

_"Her? I guess that's your choice," the nameless Stone jonin said as he grabbed the unconscious form of Naruto. Blood was seeping through his blond hair._

_"No! You don't have to do this! That idiot doesn't deserve to die," the last Uchiha called out even as his Sharingan faded to normal sight._

_Kuotsuchi smiled, then casually slit the illusionary Sheila's throat. "She was more dangerous anyways, if she was the one teaching you two how to merge elements."_

_"No! NO!"_ _Sasuke yelled as his Sharingan whirled to life as he..._

...broke the genjitsu by activating his 'perfect' Sharingan, the three tomoe swirling into blades.

"That actually worked. How cool," Sheila said brightly.

"What was that?" Naruto asked. "He just stared into space for a long time."

"I put him in an illusion where he had to choose to kill one of us to force him to activate his Mangekyo Sharinga, which he did."

Sasuke was staring at his her in shock. "You- BITCH! You made me think I killed you!"

"Uh... Oops-!"

The last Uchiha fueled his rage and chakra into his punch, reading with his activated blood-line where she would try to dodge. His hit sent her tumbling. "I don't know whether to thank you or try to kill you," he snarled. "I have the power to kill my brother now. _And _now I'm going to lose my sight."

"Huh? What? I'm confused," Naruto called out as he bounced to his feet. "Everyone... calm down!" He made several hand-seals and then tried to bind them in trees. Both of the other chunin barely dodged the attack.

"Are you done attacking me for giving you the same eyes as your brother? And what do you mean now you are going to lose your sight?" Sheila snapped out as she bounced across the floor of the Uchiha manor.

"These type of eyes degrade and eventually fail," he snapped out, his Sharingan whirling angrily

"Hmm. It's not in the eyes, but in the eye nerves. Which are hard for ninjitsu to heal correctly," Sheila noted as she studied his health metaphysically while kneeling back down on the ground, ignoring the new trees in the room.

"How the hell can you tell that?" Sasuke demanded in an angry, shocked tone. After a moment, ingrained social habits had him kneeling back down in front of her.

"Because I can see sickness, ailments and cure diseases with a glance," she replied simply.

"I thought you said you did not have a bloodline?" Naruto demanded questioningly as he knelt to the side of them both again.

"It's not a bloodline, even if it is a power that I share with my mother. My ichor sings with her power of healing and I can perform miracles," Sheila finally said. At their dubious look, she continued. "I'm not mortal like you two. My mother is or was a goddess."

The two boys shared a look. Sasuke shrugged eventually. "That's where most bloodlines come from supposedly. Or demons."

"I meant literally. Thousands of years old and can perform miracles." They were being awfully blase about this, Sheila thought in bemusement.

"So your mom might still be alive?" Naruto noted brightly.

Sasuke actually looked upset at that thought. All of them being orphans was one of the things that he felt bound all of Team 7 together.

"I don't know. I just can't imagine her letting something like the Tailed Demons be loose. That seems more like something the Titans would do. And they were the enemies of the gods."

The last Uchiha frowned. "Well, those eyes came with a cost. You still have to join my clan. And the clan only has one priority... killing Itachi Uchiha."

"I thought you wanted to rebuild your clan?" Naruto asked the obvious.

"Killing Itachi comes first," the dark-haired boy snarled out.

"That's not very logical. I mean, what if Itachi kills _us_ first? Does your clan mean so little?" Sheila frowned as she saw the _unhealthy _elevated stress levels in her new clan head. "Why do you believe that killing him comes first?"

Naruto was looking between them both, listening raptly. "She's got a point."

"He spared me because I was too weak, but left me with the words that I would only grow strong enough if I hated him utterly. Hatred is my strength to kill my brother," Sasuke declared intensely, his hands clenched at his side. "His using the Mangekyo Sharinga on me again shows how far I have to go to become powerful enough to kill him."

"Again?" Sheila noted. Her eyes narrowed in sudden thought as she started to put things together in her head. "He used that on you the day he wiped out your clan."

"Hey, isn't what he did to all of you a genjitsu?" Naruto suddenly intuited savantly.

"Exactly. Sasuke, he used a _genjitsu_ on you to foster the idea that you have to kill him. What is the definition of genjitsu?" The demigoddess was looking at the black-haired and suddenly very confused looking teen.

"It's an illusion to trick you, so that you may be defeated by your enemy. He-" Sasuke could not believe what he was contemplating. "He's using me, isn't he?"

"Suicide by family," she postulated aloud. "He _wants_ you to kill him? I mean, you were already a threat if you could have hit him with that Chidori... Sasuke, you need to talk to the Hokage."

That distracted the last Uchiha. "What? Why?"

"Because you need to be deprogrammed. Itachi brainwashed you into hating him and hunting him down. I bet it's nearly irrational in strength already. Which means he and anyone else that figures this out can use it _against_ you."

Naruto whistled. "That's a big weakness then."

"I'm not weak," Sasuke snarled out, clenching his fists again as he pressed them into the floorboards of his family home.

"Then it won't hurt to verify that you aren't under his control," Sheila noted.

His hatred was screaming deep within him, but Sasuke managed to use the thought that it _might_ be a weakness to agree. "Fine."

* * *

"I don't want to go on a training trip," Naruto shouted at the big, gray-haired man in the middle of the street. The crowds of the hidden village were giving the two (seeming) lunatics a wide berth.

"So you just want to stay a weak shrimp?" Jiraiya shouted right back. He was leaned over and looming.

The two were acting like brothers, even with the disparate ages.

"I'm a chunin already. Why do I have to go with you?" the blond-haired boy asked.

"Yes, Jiraiya, Sage of the Toads... why does my friend and team mate need to go on a training trip with you?" Sheila asked as she landed on the ground next to them. The two had been so loud she could hear them two streets over _without_ enhanced hearing.

"It took me days to catch up to you. Luckily I figured that you headed back to Konoha," the big man declared. "And as for the reason, I can't tell you guys here."

"Then takes us someplace you can," Naruto shouted right back.

"That is a simple solution. Fine, let's go talk to the Old Man and make some plans. Because things are starting to move."

Ten minutes later, they were in the Hokage's office waiting for the old Hokage to appear while Tsunade was glaring at a pile of paperwork. Sheila was estimating how quickly the leader was going to be finished with it.

"I think you need to rethink your strategy. You are losing ground," Sheila noted as she saw another pile of reports arriving. "Why aren't you getting these reports with recommendations on what needs to be done?"

"Fine. Make recommendations on these reports, chunin!" the hokage snapped, sliding over a pile of reports to her side of the desk.

Shizune blinked owlishly at the younger girl then smiled. "Well, doing paperwork is an important duty of a chunin," the companion of the Slug Sennin noted happily.

Sheila shrugged and pulled out a notepad and then started taking notes while making notations on paperwork, speeding up as she read through this. She frowned ten minutes into the work (as the Third Hokage had still not arrived) as she scrutinized a particularly boring looking report from a special jonin. "This is coded and you should probably read it immediately." She slid it over to the Fifth Hokage.

"I'll have to send it to my intelligence department. Unless you can break the cipher?" the old woman said with a quirky grin.

"Yes." Sheila was still working on the pile of paperwork efficiently as she made recommendations with her mechanical pencil.

"If it's that important, break the cipher and let me know," the Fifth Hokage said as she started to go through the recommendations. Some of them she didn't agree with, but each was thoughtfully crafted.

Sheila frowned a second, then scribbled down a note. "Here you go," she said, handing the note to Tsunade. Then she went back to her paperwork, grading another C-Rank mission statement.

Tsunade looked at the coded report that was _still_ on her desk, then at the new sheet of paper that she had just been handed. "Now that's an interesting skill. How good at breaking codes are you?"

Naruto was looking quite sleepy next to Jiraiya who was actually passed out on the couch already. "Huh? Oh, Sheila's really smart and stuff. She finished the chunin exam paper test in minutes."

"My abilities are primarily mental in nature." Sheila shrugged at that. "How else did you think I deciphered seals like I do?"

Tsunade started cackling madly. "Oh, I think I just found my new assistant for helping with paperwork. The curse of the Hokage might finally be broken."

"Oh? How did you manage that?" the old Hokage asked as he slipped in the door.

"A super-smart chunin! Though I might have to promote her to special jonin for the security clearances." Tsunade was giggling like a little girl at the thought of getting out of paperwork in a relatively easy manner. "But we can get started on the issues at hand. Jiraiya said you had a plan to get Naruto trained in using that chakra?"

"What! He didn't say anything like that to me!" Naruto cried out as he awoke the old man next to him.

"Do I need to learn that too?" Sheila asked as she kept working on the pile of papers.

"Hmm. Perhaps. But I think we'll keep you separate for security purposes. So I'll be training you between missions. Naruto, that does mean you need to travel with Jiraiya, but I want regular updates. Now that you guys have that space-time jitsu working, send a clone with regular reports." Tsunade blinked as another pile was set on her desk with scribbled on recommendations. "Shizune, go get some more reports. At this rate, we'll be able to take off the afternoon!"

"For those meetings you've been postponing? Great!" the dark-haired assistant said as she headed out of the office.

Tsunade glared at her too cheerful young friend as she left.

"I do have some personal records about how previous demon containers fought with the Nine-Tail," Hiruzen stated even as he took out a pipe to light up.

Shizune breezed back in with another pile of papers, handing them mostly to Sheila, though a few S-Rank reports were put on Tsunades side of the desk. So she jumped back in surprise when Sheila's hand came from under the edge of the desk and touched page with a snap that cracked the sound barrier at the end of a set of hand-seals.

The roof over a thousand feet away exploded in a flurry of pages and notes. A figure in civilian garb leaped away out of the area as she shed her paper version of the transformation technique.

"Spy! Some sort of technique imbued into the paper!" Sheila called out even as she threw a kunai in that direction while tossing another one over to Naruto. In a flash, she disappeared even as she landed on the rooftop behind the fleeing figure.

Konan dodged to the side as she thought the fireball was about to roast her from the genjitsu she was trapped within. At least it only appeared to be one ANBU-! Where had that girl come from. "I don't want to hurt you," the spy from Akatsuki called out as she ran for the main wall of Konoha as quickly as possible.

"Spying on the Hokage and you try to claim that?" Sheila threw her Flying Thundergod kunai ahead of her and then flashed away and then to it... with the Tsunade, Jiraiya, Hiruzen, Shizune and Naruto in tow.

"Oh, shit," Konan said as she took a ninety degree turn across the rooftop. Papers fluttered out of her sleeves, forming into wings as she took to the air. How had they figured out that the D-Rank report had been one of her sensors?

"Konan? What are you doing here?" Jiraiya asked in confusion even as he glared at her as she gained altitude. He charged up a Rasengan just to be on the safe side.

A wind suddenly picked up Sheila and rocketed her up after the escaping spy even as Hiruzen creating a technique that created a massive down-draft as a inverted tornado. "I haven't had to use that since I fought the Tsuchikage in the war," he reminisced whimsically.

"He could fly? I want to learn how to fly!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly.

"It's a bit tricky," the old Hokage admitted. "And I don't think he did it the same way that Sheila is doing it."

The red-head managed to shift her wings into crude limbs to cushion her fall to the ground. That was when her shield of paper was exploded by the Rasengan that Jiraiya had held in his hand. The Rain ninja bounced off a wall even as she spun through the air. She was just standing back up when both of her shoulders were poked with blowing green fingers from the Fifth Hokage.

"I'd suggest you just stand down," Tsunade told the defeated kunoichi.

"I won't give up-!" Konan was declaring as she got drenched by a yellow fluid. She tried to activate the explosive tags that were part of her general covering. "You ruined all the seals on my papers?" That was her suicide tactic!

"It was sort of important to know. Naruto really liked explosive tags too much and I figured I would have faced off against him in the second round," Sheila said as she finished releasing the seal from the tube she was holding. "I'm just glad he used the cheap inks that are used in the north of the lands. The squid inks from the Land of Water require a totally different solvent to dissolve."

Jiraiya looked at her incredulously. "You made up a technique like that just to defeat your own teammate in the chunin exam?"

"Ha! I had a lot of things planned for her, too," Naruto shouted out at the Toad Sage. "Though that would have messed up my big attack I used to take out that Stone guy."

"Defeated by something created by a genin. I guess I have really failed you, Pain," the pretty kunoichi said in a sad voice.

"Tsunade..." Jiraiya said slowly. "They were my first students. Konan, Yahiko and Nagato. They were that group of orphans we ran into during that fight with Hanzo in the Land of Rain."

"That doesn't change the fact that she was spying on the Hokage's office," the new Hokage noted aloud. She supposed that young girl could have grown up to become this woman. "Though we aren't at war with the Land of Rain at this point. I suppose you will just have to be Konoha's prisoner while we negotiate with Rain for your release."

"Just that easily? You have to be kidding!" the young red-head stated in shock.

"You aren't a missing ninja, so it's probable that they'll ransom you back. Killing every foe that tried to spy in the village would start another great ninja war, which we don't need. Three was enough," the old woman declared.

Weak, pathetic fools is what Konan thought, though she supposed using it against them could but help herself..

"So should I send a messenger to Yahiko and Nagato?" Jiraiya asked his old apprentice.

"Yahiko was killed by Hanzo, teacher," the young woman said angrily.

"Damn. I had hoped you three would live to a ripe old age." The gray-haired man suddenly looked older. "I guess I'll have to talk to Nagato myself."

"I would not recommend that. Send someone else that he is not angry with."

Jiraya looked even more downcast at that.

"And who is this Pain?" Sheila asked intently.

Konan refused to even look at Sheila. "He is now the leader of our village hidden within the rain."

Tsunade had to stop from rolling her eyes at the clear alias for the lead of Rain. Or at least it was a title. She then looked Jiraiya if he had any idea who this leader was. The shake of his head was all it took to confirm he did not. "Well, we shall send a negotiator to your land's lord."

* * *

Sasuke awoke without moving, instantly taking in the two presences in the room.

"Don't try anything, brat. We're here to make you an offer." The head-protectors declared they were Sound Ninja. "We want you and the girl on your team. Do anything and we'll settle for delivering your eyes to Lord Orochimaru."

Sasuke did not trust himself to say anything even as his hands were bound. Inwardly he mused that he needed a social secretary or at least a more secure apartment. "Do you really think you can escape?"

"Lord Orochimaru has a plan, so of course we will escape. With Konoha having figured out space-time jitsu, the rest of the nations are scrambling for their own counters." The rough looking fellow with a mohawk nodded at his knots.

"Where exactly do you expect to run given that 'girl' is said to be the daughter of the 4th Hokage?" Sasuke adlibbed a lie quickly.

"You have to know where to find us. The Hidden Village of the Sound is nowhere any of you would think to look. Now, where does the girl live?"

Ten minutes later, they all arrived at a rather drab apartment complex. One Sound ninja quickly discovered that it was meticulously protected with seals and traps, far more than even a chunin could ever hope to use.

Sasuke had a slight smirk on his face. "She likes to be prepared. After all, the 4th Hokage made a lot of enemies."

Inwardly he thought how he could get Sheila to help with the protections on his apartment. Though he was surprised to discover that he actually knew quite a few of the seals she was using. So maybe he would only have to ask for a few.

The Sound ninja ghosted through the traps in ten minutes, showing _why_ he was a jonin. He appeared moments later with a hogtied Sheila over his shoulder. Sasuke's keen Sharingan eyes noted her hands were slightly puffy in the darkness.

"Summon our transport," the shorter Sound ninja said to the taller one. "I'll stand guard."

The bigger ninja reached under his tattered cloak and pulled out a scroll and started to unroll it. Sasuke rolled a bit in his ropes, just enough to have the smaller ninja look over at him for two seconds. The whisper of rope on cloth was his only warning as a one-handed wind cutting technique that nearly took his head off. Even so, the attack knocked him out.

The other hand had flashed out a simple group of handsigns that even Naruto could do, even if his fireballs were rather erratic. The remaining Sound ninja snarled as he leaped away, only to swear profusely as he realized that the fireball had burnt a hole right through it. "You brat-!"

He collapsed on his face as he sprouted two kunai through his back.

"Sorry about that. It took a minute to get here from the 25th training ground," the new Sheila said.

"You let them capture you," Sasuke snapped out. "You don't have that luxury for revenge against Orochimaru."

She glared at him. "I would have been fine if you weren't here." She sent a small flare into the air to summon the nearest ANBU.

"The real you?" he said in quiet anger. "I am slowly beginning to understand that revenge should not fill all of my thoughts, but I wonder if you are just as blinded in your anger against Orochimaru for 'getting away'?" He rubbed his wrists as the ropes were removed. "T-The clan comes first. Then revenge."

The two Sheila's glared at him, but finally nodded.


	5. Time Skip

Sasuke awoke without moving, instantly taking in the two presences in the room. They were holding weapons to his neck and heart already. Damn.

"Don't try anything, brat. We're here to make you an offer." The head-protectors declared they were Sound Ninja. "We want you and the girl on your team. Do anything and we'll settle for delivering your eyes to Lord Orochimaru."

Sasuke did not trust himself to say anything even as his hands were bound. Inwardly he mused that he needed a social secretary or at least a more secure apartment. "Do you really think you can escape?"

"Lord Orochimaru has a plan, so of course we will escape. With Konoha having figured out space-time jitsu, the rest of the nations are scrambling for their own counters." The rough looking fellow with a mohawk nodded at his knots.

"Where exactly do you expect to run given that 'girl' is said to be the daughter of the 4th Hokage?" Sasuke ad-libbed a lie quickly.

"You have to know where to find us. The Hidden Village of the Sound is nowhere any of you would think to look. Now, where does the girl live?"

Ten minutes later, they all arrived at a rather drab apartment complex. One Sound ninja quickly discovered that it was meticulously protected with seals and traps, far more than even a chunin could ever hope to use.

Sasuke had a slight smirk on his face. "She likes to be prepared. After all, the 4th Hokage made a lot of enemies."

Inwardly he thought how he could get Sheila to help with the protections on his apartment. Though he was surprised to discover that he actually knew quite a few of the seals she was using. So maybe he would only have to ask for a few.

The Sound ninja ghosted through the traps in ten minutes, showing _why_ he was a jonin. He appeared moments later with a hogtied Sheila over his shoulder. Sasuke's keen Sharingan eyes noted her hands were slightly puffy in the darkness.

"Summon our transport," the shorter Sound ninja said to the taller one. "I'll stand guard."

The bigger ninja reached under his tattered cloak and pulled out a scroll and started to unroll it. Sasuke rolled a bit in his ropes, just enough to have the smaller ninja look over at him for two seconds. The whisper of rope on cloth was his only warning as a one-handed wind cutting technique that nearly took his head off. Even so, the attack knocked him out.

The other hand had flashed out a simple group of handsigns that even Naruto could do, even if his fireballs were rather erratic. The remaining Sound ninja snarled as he leaped away, only to swear profusely as he realized that the fireball had burnt a hole right through his summoning scroll. "You brat-!"

He collapsed on his face as he sprouted two kunai through his back.

"Sorry about that. It took a minute to get here from the 25th training ground," the new Sheila said.

"You let them capture you," Sasuke snapped out. "You don't have that luxury for revenge against Orochimaru."

She glared at him. "I would have been fine if you weren't here." She sent a small flare of a fire technique into the air to summon the nearest ANBU.

"The real you and letting yourself get captured?" he said in quiet anger. "I am slowly beginning to understand that revenge should not fill all of my thoughts, but I wonder if you are just as blinded in your anger against Orochimaru for 'getting away'?" He rubbed his wrists as the ropes were removed. "T-The clan comes first. Then revenge."

The two Sheila's glared at him, but finally nodded.

"Defeating him isn't going to magically fix all of your other problems," the last Uchiha said as he checked on the smaller Sound Ninja. He was probably not going to survive if he didn't get medical help within the next few minutes.

"It would be a definitive win. All I've been doing recently is _losing_." Both of them looked totally frustrated.

"Join the club. Before you appeared, I was the best in our class. The Uchiha prodigy that was going to redeem my clan and kill my brother. Then you, with no clan name or anything special I could tell _became_ the best from nothing." Sasuke clenched his fist. "I was sure that my bloodline and clan would just make me better, then you surpassed that first time on history of the five nations. Sakura, I could deal with knowing more than I could. Most of those girls couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag then." His sharingan eyes were whirling madly.

"I just... can't not do my best. I'm too competitive," she groused.

"Then I thought I would just work harder. Did you know that the entire class improved because of you? All the girl's suddenly realized I was only interested in 'strong girls.' I never did 'thank' you for that," he replied sarcastically.

"Don't you need someone to continue your clan?" she countered.

With a swish, two ANBU appeared.

"I honestly didn't put a moment's worth of thought into that," Sasuke admitted. " I couldn't put aside my desire for killing him long enough. Just as he'd planned." He then chuckled softly. "I can understand why he was made a ANBU so young. And it wasn't just for his fighting skills."

"Intruders? Couldn't you capture one of them?" the female with a bird mask asked in a grouchy tone.

Sheila looked over at both of them. "Oh, too late for the guy I stabbed in the back. But he'll-" She pointed at the one with a head wound, "-live now. We need a more secure place to stay."

"And probably your 'brother' will as well," Sasuke remarked, referring to their teammate.

"You both need to report to the Hokage. A kidnapping attempt on two chunin so soon after your promotion and the attack on the village could indicate a larger plan," the Bear ANBU said. "Special arrangements may have to be made for your security."

Strangely, both chunin looked quite surly at that pronouncement.

* * *

Naruto stretched as he worked out the kinks from his latest workout. "You didn't have to hit me so hard," he complained to his new teacher.

"Brat! I'm training you so hard so you don't die!" Jiraiya snarled out almost comically.

"No you aren't, otherwise you would have a shadow clone or two teaching me fujinitsu, chakra control and useful techniques," he countered right back. "I've got a whole bunch working on some things already, but you aren't pushing all of me. Just the parts you want with _Its_ chakra."

The huge, white-haired man wanted to refute it. "You'll melt your brain trying to do all that."

"It only gives me headaches when I dispel too many learning clones at once. If I do five every five minutes, its not too bad." Naruto gave him a cheesy grin. "I need to learn everything I can to become hokage one day!"

"So why do you suck so much at drawing on _Its_ chakra then?" the Toad Sage asked.

"It's kinda hard to draw its chakra without getting angry," the young boy admitted. "Me and Sheila talked about it. Since it is only chakra and its really _angry_, it sorta poisons your own chakra if you aren't careful." He'd had no luck making any seals that could help filter it or something.

"That makes sense," 'Ero Sensei' admitted. He also mused he might have to change his lesson plans a bit after testing to make sure Naruto was able to take that much information. Tsunade and the Professor wouldn't be very happy if, in his training, he gave Naruto a stroke. "I've got an idea. We'll have a dozen of you work on your Rasengan. You are still pretty slow with it. Then we'll have a dozen clones work on chakra control. Water-walking-"

"Already know that. It really helped when I was learning Rasengan from you. I don't think I could'a done that without that much control."

Jiraiya wondered how bad Naruto's chakra control was before given it still wasn't exactly the best. A career as a medic nin was not in the blonde knucklehead's future. "Fine then. We'll work on chakra strings and kunai. That's really hard and if you can do it, you'll be able to form a Rasengan with one hand." The Toad Sage snorted suddenly. "In _each_ hand, but I doubt you'll be able to do that for years."

"Oh yeah? I bet I can do it in a week," the blond demon container said in a challenging matter.

"Riiiiiight. You and what army-!" Jiraiya blinked in shock as his student created hundreds of clones.

"This one! Okay, guys, head out and start working on making a Rasengan in each hand. Oh, and you, go check in with Granny." Naruto was pointing at one of his clones.

So when the clone returned twenty minutes later with the Sasuke and Sheila, Jiraiya was only slightly surprised. "Why are you two here? You are supposed to be doing missions in Konoha," the big ninja complained.

"Orochimaru tried to kidnap us, so the Hokage told us that we had to accompany you for the week while security arrangements are made in the village," Sasuke explained in a very flat tone. "It was that or stay in the Hokage's Tower and not be able to do anything, even practice."

"Great. Well, what are you two working on anyways?" Jiraiya asked as he sat underneath a large oak tree. This part of Fire Country was heavily forested, if not quite the monster growth of tree around Konoha.

"Lava and chakra control," Sasuke said.

"Yes."

"What sort of answer is 'yes'?" Jiraiya asked with a sigh. He was getting too damn old for this.

"Fighting, ninjitsu, fujinitsu, genjitsu, melee weapons, ranged weapons, poisons, interrogation and research. Yes." And some of her godly gifts. She gave him a glare then. "I haven't figured out how to use the One-Tail's chakra yet. I think I closed off its chakra too much." She might have sealed it, but she had not left it any way to be accessed.

"You forgot Sharingan," Sasuke said in a deceptively lazily tone.

"Oh, that too." Oops. She probably had better try to use that some, even if she was not really planning on using its powers. It would probably just piss of the last Uchiha if she did.

Naruto had copied Jiraiya's comical look of surprise, pointing at her as if she were some sort of freak. "I'm falling behind." He immediately made three times as many clones. "You know what to do!"

"Dammit kid, clones aren't the solution to everything," the Toad Sage called out.

"No, but they do help so very much," the head of the Uchiha noted with a grim grin.

Sheila was suddenly looking off into the distance. "We are being watched. What a freaky person."

Zetsu blinked his eyes as he realized that the girl was looking right at him as he appeared. He did not move, instantly trying to verify if she was actually seeing him or if she had managed to sense him. He was stealthy, but even his transportation technique had a very small amount of chakra released. So when her eyes started looking around into the shadows of trees next to him, he relaxed ever so slightly.

"Black and white man growing out of a strange plantlike Venus-Fly-trap like opening on a tree. Eight hundred feet away. He's _very_ stealthy."

"Akatsuki. I wasn't expecting them to find us so fast, but its obvious we need to really disappear," the Toad Sage noted aloud.

"Hold out your hands," Sheila ordered. They all held out their hands and in a flash, the appeared under a bridge. "Wave Country. I doubt he can catch up to us that quickly."

Jiraiya made a half dozen clones. "All right, class is in session. You little terrors are going to be learning everything I can pass on."

* * *

The shadow-seal clone of Sheila was happily working along in the Hokage Tower, churning through the larger part of the paperwork as Tsunade and Shizune laughed a little bit as they worked on the more truly sensitive papers. "A monster was sighted off the coast near the village of Konocho. They said it was a large, turtle like thing with multiple tails, headed south. That was days ago, so its probably way out into the ocean." The Three-Tail!

"Not much we can do. It's not like we can easily find a sea monster out in that big of an area. It would be like hunting a needle in a haystack," the Hokage admitted. "So all we can do is try to have a fast reaction group of ANBU near the area and try to capture the beast."

"Needles are easy to find, if you have the right tools," the clone said mildly.

"If you think you can track it down..." Tsunade was looking at her predecessors chiseled on the cliff face outside the windows. "Capturing any of the free Tailed Beasts could be pivotal against Akatsuki."

"You want me to draw up an A-Rank mission, teacher?" Shizune asked.

"Yes, I think so. It will be a stated unofficial mission goal to capture enemy demon containers and loose Tailed Beasts."

Far off in a forest where Team 7 was studying under the Toad Sage (as they had been for the last month) Sheila smiled as she looked off to the south. "How do you two feel about hunting some demons?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow above his whirling Sharingans. "What brought up this thought?"

"I'm also in Konoha doing paperwork," she replied casually. Both of her teammates nodded at that, knowing that the Hokage had latched onto her to do a lot of the scut paperwork.

"Crap I forgot to send some clones to water my plants," Naruto suddenly said comically.

"Naruto..." the demigoddess growled. "The Hokage is deciding about capturing loose Tailed Demons and there might be one out in the Eastern Ocean."

"So you already have a plan?" the Uchiha asked as more of a statement.

"I can make clones and fly enough to scan hundreds of miles, but I will probably need some assistance in actually binding the Three Tail into my body," she admitted. "And it would hurt that organization."

That got a dark smile out of Sasuke. He might not be planning on chasing his brother down single-mindedly, but he still wanted to punish him. And taking his targets away from him sounded good.

"What are you three doing?" Jiraiya shouted as he appeared behind them in a poof of smoke.

"We are taking a move against Akatsuki. Do you want to help?" Naruto asked with a wide, happy grin.

"What are you guys talking about? You are out here training because we can't let any of your fall into Akatsuki or Orochimaru's hands," the Toad Sage asked as he loomed over all three kids.

"Capturing another Tailed Beast, of course. The more of those that disappear, the less they can capture."

"And what are you planning on doing with it? You already have the One-Tail," he asked casually while staring off into the distance with a goofy looking grin.

"I figured I'd just seal it in me again. And hopefully not in a useless seal that doesn't allow me to access its chakra. All I get when I try to pull any chakra from the One Tail is chattering insanity in my ears- OOOOF!"

Between one second and another, Jiraiya had suddenly moved faster than any of the three chunin could even _think_ to respond to. Two shadow clones appeared while instantly doing the hand seals for the Earth Burial technique. Naurto never even saw it coming and was suddenly stuck in bedrock hard soil up to his neck. Sasuke _nearly_ dodged it, even as Jiraiya's clone for him folded him in one punch, then buried him up to his neck and forced his head down to an uncomfortable level. His spinning Sharingan had a picture perfect view of the grass and very little else.

Sheila saw the blur headed her way and got two steps before she was tripped by stone hands from the ground and then slammed _into_ the ground with totally stunning force that robbed her of her breath. Her left hand was forcibly pulled behind her back by her pointing finger (with a popping crack sound) even as she heard a very ominous humming sound from behind her head.

"All right, kid, you are going to tell me why you are trying to gather up the Tailed Demons. And if I don't like your answer, I get to see how tough you really are." The Rasengan was swirling just behind her head and was spinning her blond hair and tugging at it painfully.

"What the hell, old man?" Naruto shouted. "She's a ninja of Konoha! You can't just attack us like that!"

Jiraiya twisted the finger more, causing what should have been excruciating pain. "Maybe I should just turn you into a toad?"

"Nothing that should harm Konoha," the girl said, then spat out some grass. Her one-handed seal from her right hand was stopped by a stomp that sprained her wrist and made a small crater from the power of his chakra-enhanced strength. "I'm telling the truth!"

"Yeah, well, you still haven't said _why,_ little girl. For all I know, you've thrown in with Akatsuki and you'll take off with the demons at the worst moment. So don't make me ask again. Why do you want them?" The big, old ninja looked totally serious as his Rasengan ripped a few hairs from the back of her head.

"I need more power so I can get into the Overworld," she shouted into the dirt. "I figure that if I bind several of the demons, I should be strong enough to try to force my way past what ever guardians the Titans have placed." Shit, shit, shit.

"I suppose that's possible. And I can even agree to that to a degree, but I don't think I quite trust you enough to put all my eggs in one basket. So let's come up with another plan than make you into super demon-container," the old man said in a threatening tone.

Sasuke had to hand it to Jiraiya, he really knew how to turn the screws on a person. "What about splitting it up?" he called out suddenly. "Some of my family records stated that the Fourth sealed part of the Nine Tailed Fox into himself to weaken it."

"It was killing him, though putting some of its chakra into a sealing jar might be viable if we could figure out a way to purify it so it can't escape," the Toad Sage admitted as he noted the Uchiha had lied about keeping records of that night. He dispelled his Rasengan and then let all three of them up. "Let's go talk to The Hokage. I might be her old teammate, but I don't make policy."

"Why the hell haven't you taught me any of that cool stuff you just used!" Naruto yelled out the moment he was free.

"Because we are just kids," Sasuke said grimly. No wonder Itachi had actually fled when Jiraiya was there with the other jonin. What a monstrous power and skill.

Sheila grimaced as she popped her finger back into its joint even as it healed. She winced even as her other self from her shadow-clone finished explaining things clear back in Konoha. "The Hokage wishes to speak to us. Now."

* * *

Cool brown eyes studied Team 7 closely. "Dispel the clone. Now."

Sheila winced at the tone. She then put her hand above the sealed up legend and released it. It still gave her a headache from the memories returning. "Done."

Tsunade leaned across her mostly clean desk, Jiraiya looming off to the side. "I think the only thing that is saving your hide, chunin, is the fact that you didn't break any rules per se. It was just childishly manipulating things to get what you want. The Tailed Beasts, though, are not toys. Jiraiya, what can we seal the Three Tailed Turtle into?"

"A child or a jar... temporarily. Neither is a good option. I'd suggest we put it in a sealing jar for now and hide it in the most secure, shielded room so that Akatsuki can't find it," the huge, white-haired man said instantly.

"And to capture it?" she asked archly.

"Wood Technique, of course. We have that jonin, three chunin and I heard you were learning from your clan too, princess." Jiraiya's grin was pretty wide and lecherous.

"Yes, I've started mastering my grandfather's legacy." Tsunade frowned. "But I can't leave Konoha for that long."

"Are you kidding? Now that I've had a chance to decipher what these kids are doing with their crazy-ass ideas in seals, travelling long distances in moments is child play. I just wish we had some way to counter it or block the space-time technique." The Toad Sage shrugged at that.

"I bet a barrier could do it," Sasuke said as he thought it over. "But it would have to be a specific barrier designed around blocking just that technique."

"Um... I'm still working on my master seal," the orange-loving knucklehead said.

"And each way will require their own barrier, unless we make it so inclusive that it can block summons. Though I suppose a key anti-barrier could be created to allow for travel in and out of the barrier. Interdiction zones that only those in authority could allow for travel within, essentially." It looked like the young demigoddess was going to have a lot of time to study, if she understood what was about to happen.

"Jiraiya, I want you to work with all three of these chunin on a special A-Rank mission to create this interdiction barrier. While you train them." The hokage leaned back in her seat and looked out through the open windows and out at the cliff face with the busts of the hokages. "Sheila, for your punishment, I'm going to deny the request from the advancement board to promote you to special jonin. We'll revisit that when show a greater maturity."

She tried to not flinch at that. "Yes, Hokage."

"Dismissed."

"That was totally not fair," Naruto grumbled as Jiraiya led them out onto the streets of Konoha. The old man just listened in patiently while looking (almost) distractedly at the pretty young ladies.

Sasuke was in a bit of quandary. He knew what Naruto was saying, but he could also see what Tsunade was saying. And then there was her old team mate. "Hnn. Just a slap on the wrist, really. The Hokage did say that chunin were to learn to be leaders. I guess we can learn from it."

Sheila frowned as she tried to go over the comment. A little bit of the despair in her hear lifted. She probably had been trying for too much, too quickly. "Maybe."

* * *

"I can't believe you brought us here," the old man said to the three, very young, chunin. "Land of Whirlpools."

"Why can't you? I mean, it's just a ruin," Naruto pointed out as he gestured to the shattered, circular towers and the remains of the bridges that led across the gorge to both sides. He carefully erased his seal from the ground. Not much of a secret if anyone knew where this was located, after all.

"The Village Hidden in the Whirlpools... was an ally of the Senju." Jiraiya tapped the symbol on Sasuke's shoulder of a Whirlpool. "They were related to the Senju, though distantly. Your mother came from here over thirty years ago, Naruto."

"What?" he screeched, looking around frantically.

"Isn't that Fateful?" Sheila asked the Toad Sage with a discerning smile. "Naruto finding out information on his past by accident and doled out in small portions... How coincidental..."

The slightly shifty expression Jiraya gave them did not inspire confidence.

Sasuke sighed and wondered how the Third Hokage kept his sanity dealing with his infamous students. "Is it safe?" the last Uchiha asked bluntly.

Snippy little brat... "Probably. I'd let Naruto enter anything first though. And if you see runes, try to decipher them _before_ you touch them." This had to be the old man's revenge, sticking him with three wonder-childs. The potential for the prophecy to fulfill itself among these three was terrifying.

Sheila created six clones that immediately headed out to the edge of the field. They immediately started doing seals and then sat on the point of the chakra pattern on the ground. It was a massive circle with six foci. It would really do nothing except drain ambient chakra from the air and ground into the seals.

"Are you sure you can reseal the One Tail back in your improved seal?" Jiraiya asked curiously.

"Naruto should be able to restrain it inside the chakra barrier while my sharingan might be able to place it under a mind-control genjitsu," Sasuke noted.

"And the power to actually seal it correctly?" Jiraiya continued with his line of questioning.

"At this point, the only people I've seen with more power than me for powering techniques and seals have been S-Rank ninja or kages. And that's why you are here, just in case this goes spectacularly wrong.

"If this go wrong, spectacular will be the last word for it," the Toad Sage remarked. "More like horrific and destructive."

That got the girl to giggle, something that the old man hadn't really heard before. "Ready, Naruto? I'll need four of your big trees to drain and contain its chakra," she called out as she sat in the middle of the field.

"You better believe it!" he shouted out while giving her a thumb's up.

Sasuke's Sharingan whirled to life even as Sheila pressed her hand above her heart, carefully manipulating her four-trigam seal. Knowing the key, she was able to open it as easily as she had the original seal that had been upon Gara. Though that one had almost been failing and much simpler. Otherwise it would require drawing it out painfully through the chakra-network of the body, effectively ripping out all chakra (and life) of the owner.

The One Tail, Shukaku, erupted from her body, leaving her weakened. "FREEE!" it screamed. "I'll drink your blood to sate my thirst! How dare you bind me in that dark place-"

It was interrupted when four large trees slammed into him, thick branches of a strange, squarish sort interlocking. "Wood-Demon Binding Technique!" Naruto bellowed out.

"That won't hold me forever! I'll break these trees with my sand and- and- and- What are those eyes?" the yellow-eyed demon shoutetd as Sasuke's Sharingan tri-tomoe eyes whirled and spun in red-bladed fury.

"Demon-Binding eye," he shouted out as the demon lost the ability to even struggle physically. This was taking so much energy. But he could do this.

Dozens of hand seals flowed through Sheila's hands in a strobbing flicker as she crafted the fujinitsu. This one was much more similar to the one Naruto sported, though not without a few alterations of her own. She pushed a huge amount of her own Legend into the sealing, then threw enough chakra to finish the balance. Chakra that was dwindling rapidly. But her planning had been enough and with the sound of air and sand being sucked into the massive seal on her stomach, the One Tailed demon was sealed again.

"Got you," she muttered. "I think I'm going to be out of it for a bit though."

"That wasn't too bad," Naruto said with a happy grin. "Team 7 rocks!"

"Well, I'm glad you aren't tired. Those clones are keeping any chakra from leaking out, right?" Jiraiya called out. At her nod, he just smiled. "Good, then Naruto can safely practice trying to draw out the Nine-Tail's chakra."

"What about me?" Sasuke asked in a surly tone.

"Once you get your breath back, I'll let you copy a couple of basic techniques. Then I'll start to teach you how to use them effectively." He made a chopping motion to cut off the last, loyal Uchiha. "I could let you copy a thousand techniques, but if you used them all like a hammer the first person you run into that can use one of them better than you will kill you. Your memorial will have such a great saying; killed by his lack of patience and so the Uchiha died off."

The young chunin looked just about ready to attack the old man, only the stinging defeat from just a day ago kept him back. He watched critically as Naruto started to glow with the obscene, vile chakra of the Nine Tailed demon. The aura was oppressive.

"Good. Now its time to use that. Without getting angry, come at me," Jiraiya called out.

Slitted red eyes popped open and Naruto grinned. "Here I come!" His feet pressed the ground so hard as he kicked off, that it dented in the solid stone. His speed had increased dramatically, forcing Jiraiya to give ground.

That was when Sasuke felt a second, evil chakra beside him as his other teammate started to glow with evil chakra. Sheila's eyes opened, revealing gold eyes with a diamond in the middle.

"This is fairly tough," Sheila said as she fought the mentally contaminating influence that tried to slip through with the evil chakra.

The Last Uchiha's eyes swirled and then locked, entering her mindscape. The cave was circular, with ten openings. Nine of them had a seal at the center of the bars and behind one sat the rabid racoon.

"Blood! Blood for the sand! Drink the blood!" it screamed.

Sheila appeared next to him. "A new power of your Sharingan?"

"Yes. Nine more cages? You haven't given up on capturing all the demon beasts, have you?" the dark-haired chunin said to her as he stared at the monster in her seal.

"Planning for the worst case scenario. After all, we can't let Akatsuki have all of their power. And we can't always depend on having a massive sealing jar. And I'd rather not consign a baby to the life of a demon-container." After all, she had seen the disdain that the villagers had shown Naruto. And Konoha was a very progressive, nice community compared to Water or Stone, after all. And Sand... one would wonder why they'd want their demon-container a socially isolated maniac. On top of the blood thirsty raccoon's rantings.

"Yeah, I can see that." He released his Sharingan genjitsu.

Back outside, they continued to watch Naruto and Jiraiya spar within the massive circle. They'd have to move in a bit, as the area was starting to be shattered and ruined.

* * *

The member of the secret organization, Akatsuki, were meeting. Only their leader, Pain, was physically present. His red hair and strange, metal piercings were a deep contrast to his Rinnegan eyes. Shadowy figures wearing the red robes with black clouds were standing in a circle.

"Why are we summoned, Pain?" the ancient Kakuzu demanded, barely hiding his frustration at working _for_ the Rinnegan user, rather than with him.

The purple-ringed eyes studied them all, hunting for the traitor that was unravelling his plan. "Konoha is on the move. Instead of being weakened by Orochimaru's attack, they seem to have become even stronger than ever. Their demon-container and his teammates are proving to be interesting young shinobi."

The other immortal, Hidan, snorted. "You have got to be kidding me? What the heck are two genin going to do to our plans against all of the ninja nations?"

"So speaks someone that has not heard their stories." Sasori was hunched over, looking like some demented beetle with a cloak. "Two of those genin helped stop Orochimaru's assassination attempt on Hiruzen. And there is a rumor going that they unveiled the plan five weeks before the attack. The Sound was soundly thrashed and Konoha is waging a direct war in the Land of Rice. Rumor states that all three were made chunin because they have started the mastery of dual-nature chakra. The Nine Tailed host has discovered he can use Wood, the girl showed Ice and Storm and the Uchiha showed Lava."

"They set a trap that nearly caught Kisame and I," Itachi admitted, his Sharingan memorizing everything with preternatural clarity in red and black vision.

"Huhn, yeah. They don't have anything like our art, but the Ninja of the Stone are really riled up. They've been in a tizzy because all of them were using some lame-ass weak variations of the Flying Thunder God as _genin_. That Uzumaki is not only of that destroyed clan, but the Fourth's child." Diedara, the missing ninja of the Stone, declared excitedly. "The Tsuchikage is really riled up and rumor is that he failed to kill the girl."

"Kages do seem to have kept the tailed beasts in their kids," Kisame remarked.

There was a silence as the S-Rank threats thought deeply upon the matter.

It was Pain that finally spoke. "Sasori, Diedara; how has your research gone to tracking down the One Tail?"

Sasori of the Red Sand bowed his masked face as a subtle clicking sound could be heard from his hunched body. "The One Tail was taken by Konoha... before the attack started. Of even more note, Gaara did not even realize it was gone until he tried to use it. The level of trickery there is... laudible."

"How the hell did they do that?" Kisame demanded. "I thought that tearing the Tailed Beasts from their hosts would kill them?" The ex-Mist ninja was actually worried at that. "And with Konoha having that Wood Technique again-"

"That is enough," Pain ordered. "It appears that the Nine Tail's team are prodigies of sealing. Instead of ripping the chakra from their hosts, they have figured out how to unlock it. That is supposedly _possible_ with the key, but we did not think it was feasible without getting a hold of the design."

Zetsu finally spoke up. "I believe they know of my spying on them. I lost Jiraiya and his new students weeks ago."

"And our other spy was caught, though Konoha is going to return her for concessions from Rain. They are still showing they are weak, as they don't even suspect she works for Akatsuki. Our plans will proceed. Continue to take missions, under-cutting the five great villages while researching your targets. Everyone keep an ear out for news on the One Tail. Most likely, the new Hokage has put it in a new container."

They all nodded grimly under the stone gaze of the demon sealing statue.

* * *

**(The Land of Rice, three months later.)**

The Sound Ninja were patrolling nervously through the light forest of Rice Country, which was all but Sounds' but for the name. The trio of chunin were to canvass the southern border from the shadows. The war with the Leaf had been going poorly. Perhaps if the Third Hokage had died and not been able to pass on power smoothly to the Fifth Hokage Tsunade they would not have pushed aggressively, but the Sound had been on the defensive for three months.

And suddenly, the shadows were dispelled as a huge fireball burst out of bush right at them. The chunin immediately dove out of the way, showing long practice.

"Rasengan!" Naruto shouted as he appeared, intercepting the larger Sound ninja, the swirling chakra attack hitting his foe's stomach with churning, grinding power.

The second chunin found himself staring into red, Sharingan eyes. With a shout, he leaped away even as Sasuke followed him, his foot slamming into the enemy's face, sending his head to bounce heavily on on a branch. The distraction of the pain was enough that the dark-haired Uchiha's follow-up with a kunai was not blocked.

"Shit! The Neo-Sannin!" the last chunin said, even as he replaced himself with a log. He had no illusion that he could deal with the deadly ambushers. They had not been seen regularly, but when they did show their faces in the war they left a lot of bodies. So he had no idea that he was caught in a genjitsu, the only movement allowed was his moving eyes.

So the pain of his slit throat was immense, shattering the illusions. He tried to feebly hold his life's-blood with his bare hands in desperate futility.

Sheila looked off into the distance he had started to move off to. "This should have been the last patrol."

Jiraiya let his illusion slip, appearing from the wavering air. "Good. We need to move on to my contact. As far as we can tell, Orochimaru still doesn't understand what our fortresses in Yai, Puchu and Bon valley are really for."

"Hopefully he thinks we are trying to 'fort up' our borders during the last of the winter," Sheila said as she scanned the area.

"Orochimaru probably can't believe we aren't razing our way through Rice like the Leaf, Stone and Lightning did during the last wars," the old man said with a snicker. The truth of the matter is that Konoha would have, if Sheila had not suggested an old tactic of dealing with burrowing creatures.

Flood them out. Several rivers passed through Land of Rice and down into the Land of Fire. This was usually the path of least resistance to invasion, so is where all the major battles had played out between the larger powers. Rice had never had a powerful ninja force, as the three nations had moved quickly to crush any forts or encampments within the nation. Only individual clans like the Fuma had been left.

Konoha had been preparing in the last month, ferreting out the bases and such that were above the projected floodlines. While it would not kill Orochimaru or his forces, he was going to find it hard to defend a flooded country, while Konoha turned the gigantic dams into forts that produced massive amounts of electricity while defending the heartland of the Land of Fire.

Jiraiya frowned at that thought. The size of the structures were huge, beyond anything he had heard created in centuries. He had been surprised to discover that Sheila considered them only fairly 'decent sized' as such things went. "All right, fall back to Fort Yai."

The quartet moved quickly down the valley in disguise, following the river even as they sent shadow clones to track the dead chunin's trail from their base. Sheila's preternaturally sensitive nose would mark the new base for destruction.

In front of them was the massive, curved wall of formed stone. Sheila had figured out a new technique that merged the Earth technique with a metal framework. With the wall being meters and meters thick at the base while tapering to only just over four meters at the top of the eighty foot wall. There was a bit of fakery in putting sensors for chakra for people walking up, that was a ruse. The actual 'forts' were built into the hills on either side.

Up ahead was Team Eight under chunin Hinata. Guard duty at the fort was usually dull, but still very important.

"Hey guys!" Naruto shouted excitedly as they leaped out of the trees and sprinted up the walls at a fast pace.

Hinata had changed a bit in the last three months. The consequence of being _better_ than her cousin, as she had passed her chunin exam at a younger age, had given her father a grudging respect which had then fed back to the girl. The crushing weight of responsibility of being temporarily in charge of Team Eight at times had also forced her to grow into a leadership role that she had not thought she would ever have to bear.

But it not just expected, but assumed she would continue to succeed.

And much to her own bewilderment, she was succeeding better than she had thought possible. "Hello, Naruto," she called out in as confident tone as she could manage (to anyone else, it was just a normal greeting.) She had been helping the other chunin molding the huge blocks of stone around the lattice of metal, which had done wonderful things for her own chakra levels. Like any other exercise, it increased your strength.

Sheila and Sasuke were studying the massive structure. The Hidden Village of Sound probably did not think it was that useful, but it was being constructed under a large scale genjitsu that had been designed by Tsunade and Kurenai as the foremost experts of that field in Konoha. It was a subtle thing, disguising the scale and depth to those outside of the immediate construction zone. So in the distance, it looked less than half as big and not nearly as solid.

Kiba frowned as he took in their appearance. "Oh, great. It's the mighty trio. The 'Neo-Sannin'."

The bug using member of Team 8 just nodded to Sasuke and Sheila.

"The Neo-Sannin?" Naruto mused out-loud. "Do they really call us that?"

"I just hope we have better luck in student relations then they do," Sheila mused. "Orochimaru tried to kill the Third Hokage and there was that recent confrontation with that former student of Jiraiya's from Rain over a spy."

"That's real life for you," the older Sennin said grumpily. "I had hoped for more from Nagato and Konan."

"Still, to meet someone that had the Rinnegan would be neat," Sheila said in a wistful tone. "And if Konoha could have convinced him to join, we would have had the three legendary eye techniques."

Naruto whistled at that thought. "That would be neat."

"All right, you three. Inside the fort while I head to a nearby village to talk to my contact without you tag alongs." The old man scruffed up Naruto and Sheila's hair, just like he had his old student Minato when he was their age.

"Byakugan," Hinata whispered as Team 7 moved inside. No one could blame her for watching Naruto while- "Shino, sound the alarm. There are Sound Ninja rapidly approaching in an attack pattern from the north."

"Bring it on!" Kiba called out with an eager smile.

Shino just nodded as he sent insects to raise the alarm. All of the Leaf Ninja disappeared into prepared ambush points taking advantage of the subtle genjutsu on the fortress.

So when the mist rolled in down the river, no one was surprised as the shadowy figures that appeared moments later. Sound ninja, two dozen strong moved silently down the banks and on the river.

Kabuto frowned, even as he glanced at the two Missing Ninja at the back of the group. "Where is that Hyuga?" He needed to make sure that he took her for Orochimaru's experiments and to pay for his mercenaries.

"Dynamic entry!" a green jump-suited figure shouted, just before reverse-heel kicking a Sound Chunin into a three foot crater in the sand. He gave them all a thumb-up and a wide smile.

"Maito Gai, eh?" Zabuza Mamochi said as his chakra thickened in the air, the mist thickening. "There's a decent bounty on your head."

A huge, double-headed snake broke through the surface of the water to smash against the thick base of the dam, bouncing off of the reinforced granite-crete. The chirping of electricity sang as a silver-haired jonin streaked down the cliff face. With a crack of thunder and lightning, one of the heads was cleaved by the 'lightning edge' from Kakashi.

With a mighty woosh, a heavy wind blasted away the mist to reveal that there were an equal number of Leaf Ninja compared to the Sound Ninja. Asuma Sarutobi lowered his hands and brought up a kunai in place.

"Haku, take out the weaker ones first," Zabuza ordered even as he charged at the jonin in green. With a massive swing, he tried to part the tall ninja with his head, only to miss by mere millimeters as Maito bent backwards flexibly.

"How unyouthful! I shall have to show you the true spirit of my youth!" the jonin with the bowl-cut called out, even as he leaped over a second swing.

"Almost as annoying as your bingo entry says," Zabuza noted to himself, even as he had to duck a kick that tried to take off his head.

Off to the edge, the Sound Jonin Kabuto frowned as he considered matters. Something was not adding up. It was that kunai. "They are fakes. Those aren't real jonin," he called out.

"Drat," the fake Maito Gai said just before his form shimmered and shrank to a much smaller form of Sheila in her black and white leaf-pattern chunin vest.

"How'd you know," Naruto said as he dropped his advanced henge of Asuma.

"Knowledge of where they are and not using their tools perfectly," Sasuke said as he reverted to his own sign.

"This doesn't change our mission at all," Zabuza stated in a simple, if bloodthirsty, manner.

"I'll take the girl," Kabuto called out as he extended green scalpels of chakra from his fingers.

"Sheila, Kabuto is as strong as Kakashi," the last Uchiha called out. "You need to use them if you want to live."

"I'll take the last Uchiha. I can sell his eyes to the Cloud Ninja for a king's ransom along with the Hyuga's," the missing ninja of the Mist said, his killing intent increasing dramatically. He'd let the Sound jonin bleed the girl that recreated the Flying Thundergod and then kill her himself.

"No way in hell am I letting you hurt my friends!" Naruto shouted, even as he charged forward with a Rasengan at the ready.

So he was quite surprised when a flicker of an ice mirror intercepted him and tossed him out onto the river in front of the fortress. "Your opponent will be me," Haku said with readied senbon needles.

"Take heart, our foes can only attack if they waver! Fight for Fire! Fight for Konoha! The Will of Fire lives this day!" Sheila shouted out even as her blue-green eyes twisted, activating their three tomoe in each one. Her words shattered the effect of the enemies' killing intent, her supernatural force of will protecting her friends. "For the Will of Fire!" Not only did she inspire her side, but the battle-cry echoed through them and unleashed a supernatural spark of heroism and valor.

Hinata Hyuga had always wanted to be strong and brave. Hearing the words of the blonde girl struck her where she lived, igniting something within her that she had not believed existed. She would fight with everything for Konoha and her crush. "Formation five!" the pale-eyed heiress ordered in a strong tone, her Byakugan pulsing strongly on her forehead.

The chunin in front of her widened his eyes as the small, petite girl charged him fearlessly even as Kiba and Akamaru spun through a double attack that obliterated his partner.

"You are within the range of my divination! Thirty-two trigams attack!" she called out, lashing out with her chakra-strikes. She could suddenly _see_ the tenketsu points, as if she had always been too afraid to do so.

Kabuto frowning as he saw Naruto and Sasuke go toe to toe with the missing-ninja Mist and his protoge. "Just you and me? Well, I'll have to do my best then," he said with a creepy smile. He lashed out with his full speed, only to blink in astonishment as he _missed_.

The young demigoddess was blurring through the fog that Zabuza was thickening, her supernatural sight allowing her to see _through_ the mist. Outside the fight a large area barrier was encompassing the entire area even as she sent of bolt of storm lightning out of her twin-seal hands. "So surprised? I am actually using the Sharingan and my full speed."

"You are just a chunin. I've killed jonin and even faced off against the famed Copy Cat Ninja himself," the medical ninja said confidently. He was older and far more sneaky.

Off in the mist, the large snake summon screamed as destruction bugs devoured it and its chakra. Shino stood on top of the wall, watching as the dying summon failed to disappear. "So the ambush worked."

"It did, Chunin Shino Aburame," the buxom woman said as she exited the real fortress in a blur to skid next to him. "Let's end this now." She clapped her hands with beyond-monstrous strength. The thunderclap blew away the mist, revealing the full force for the first time.

Kabuto gaped as he saw almost all of Konoha's elite jonin, special jonin and chunin on the wall. Not to say the woman standing in front of them on top of the wall.

"I will give you one chance to surrender. Lay down your arms," Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, called out in a strong voice.

"Retreat!" a chunin of Sound with an eye patch screamed out even as he tried to flee from one of the many chunin back upriver.

"A barrier? We're trapped," Haku said in shock, looking around. Pushing against a mirror, it was discovered that the mirror summoned before the fight was blocked off also. "Zabuza, we can't escape."

Zabuza snarled under his mask even as he flashed over to Haku with a flash step. "We might have to surrender. Even I can't fight all those jonin _and_ the Hokage."

Kabuto was already smearing blood from his bitten thumb on a tattoo, but only summoned smoke. "What?" His stance on the river water was steady in spite of turbulence.

The chirping of electricity was the only warning as Kabuto managed to duck just fast enough to avoid having his heart pierced, instead losing his left lung. "We've already countered your escape before the attack even started," Sasuke quasi-bluffed as he pulled his hand from Kabuto's body.

"Rasengan!" two dozen Naruto's shouted out, each one creating his new signature attack against all of Haku's mirror's. They may have been flame resistant, as Ice trumped Fire, but the swirling chakra ground right through the ice in a hail of shards. "I've improved a lot since the Land of Wave!"

Zabuza stifled a gulp at the dozens of blonde carrying swirling balls of chakra. "Isn't that the move that the Fourth Hokage created? I think... we surrender."

Kabuto held up his hand to the hole in his chest, putting most of his chakra into sealing the hole with scarred, damaged flesh. He screamed in agony as somehow the wound was suddenly turned horribly aggravated, bruised flesh splitting and blood spewing out. "How-!"

Sheila did not bother to answer his question of how she used her healing power to harm him as her hands flashed through another set of double hand-seals.

Haku saw something that was thought impossible, as water and wind combined, creating a fifteen foot ice block with the jonin Kabuto of Sound within it. The ice-user blinked in shock as some sort of seal was engraved in the ice, causing it to creak as if it had been suddenly made even colder. "Is she from the Land of Water?"

"No, she is the new genius of Konoha," a soft voice said. "Please submit to having your tenketsu sealed." Hinata started to carefully push the tenketsu, sealing off their chakra.

Zabuza frowned as the Konoha dog-ninja smirked as he took his Head Cleaver. "That's an honorable blade that I will want back," he growled even as he watched the last of the Sound thoroughly thrashed by the Leaf jonin and chunin. What a one-sided fight.

"Lady Hokage, where do you want this traitor put?" Sheila called out from next to the large block of ice.

"ANBU headquarters now," the old woman ordered.

Zabuza growled through the pain of having his own chakra points sealed, narrowing his eyes as the thin and lanky girl hefted the tons of ice to her shoulder and disappeared in a flash of yellow.

* * *

Sharingan eyes watched the battle through the barrier. "It was a slaughter. Konoha is becoming radically stronger. The other nations will not sit still," Itachi Uchiha said to his shark-like partner.

"That's going to disrupt Leader's plans," Kisame replied with a heavy note of complaint in his voice and on his face. "Only the Cloud and the Stone can even hope to face the Leaf as they are now." The Mist were still far too fractured, though there were rumors that there was a new Mizukage. And Sand was allied for now, after their disastrous attack.

"Which is probably why we are here to learn of the Sound-Stone alliance. I don't think the old man of Iwakagure will actually ally with Orochimaru directly. He will probably just try to protract the fight as long as possible." Itachi frowned slightly. There was some sort of genjitsu upon the fortress. How strange.

"Which hasn't worked too well, as the snake is slippery and sneaky. I'd swear he was able to detect us without us even seeing our bodies," the missing-ninja of the Mist said. "So did Zabuza go down fighting?"

"No, he and his apprentice gave up when the Hokage appeared with all of the jonin and chunin. If I was trapped in that barrier and did not have a death sentence, I would too," Itachi noted coolly. A thought suddenly occurred. "He may be using our rings against us."

Kisame widened his eyes, then narrowed them in deep through. "The Leader won't be very happy about that."

"We shall send our rings (temporarily) to the Leader and continue with our mission." Somehow between one moment and another, Itachi was holding a large raven that took the ring he offered into its beak.

"This is what we get for letting him live," Kisame sighed. He then took off his ring with a sigh.

* * *

**(One Year After Chunin Exams)**

"Konohamaru!" Sheila called out even as she bounced a piece of chalk off of the students head, leaving a small bruise. "Don't make me spell 'slacker' on your forehead again."

The youngest Sarutobi grimaced at that. His grandfather had been _very_ upset when he came home with that mark on his forehead. "Yes, teacher."

"Why did we have to get such a young, hard-nosed teacher," his friend Udon complained.

Moegi was not really as upset at the boys, but because the teacher did not give them any slack. "Teacher, why did the Hokage assign a special jonin to our class?"

"I was a chunin first, but that's because I can use clones to do a lot extra work. And I can tailor your classes better." The young blonde shook her head. "I'm doing paperwork at the Hokage's Tower too."

"And fighting up in the Land of Rice," Hanabi Hyuga noted coldly.

"And fighting up in the Land of Rice."

"My head would so explode doing that," Udon said in complaint.

"Now why is it so important to know why and how the Third Great Ninja War ended?" Sheila looked over them all. "Anyone."

Hanabi finally raised her hand. "Well, you are always teaching that we need to know the past so we don't repeat it. Obviously we won, but we had been losing the war before that point."

"Which is exactly the point. After the Second Great Ninja War, Konoha had relied its stature and not taken certain measures to increase their pool of qualified ninja. So when we started, Konoha had to rush training up their genin as fast as possible. But in my opinion, if they had been a little more strict in the regimen the five years before hand, Konoha could have probably saved more than 30 % of their losses and possibly won the war without having to be dependent on 'good luck'. Being lucky isn't something most people can depend on, after all."

"So what would you have done?" Udon asked tentatively. He had found out if he did not ask, he would be called on four times as much. And the teacher _would_ notice.

"Oh, push the genin canidates a bit harder. Teach them to be leaders... and followers," she explained.

"But that's what you are doing with us," Konohamaru noted suddenly.

"That's right. Eventually, you might all have a chance to become chunin leaders, Jonin, ANBU captains, Jonin Commander or even the Hokage. But before that, you will also have to learn how to listen to orders and then make your decision on what to do." Sheila started calling up different students, ending with Moegi last. She handed the girls their assignment sheet. "Here is your yard-tasks. You are team captains today."

Moegi frowned. The cute young girl was not thrilled with their chore. She had both Konohamaru and Udon. Udon absolutely hated the heavy work that was sometimes required to digging a fire-break wall. So it was going to be up to her to order the two boys while pitching in. She shuddered as she remembered the 'remedial' training that Rioni had to do when she did not chip in. That girl was still sending death-glares when she thought Sheila was not watching. "Konohamaru! Udon! Let's go!"

* * *

On a deserted island out south of the Land of Wind, three 'students' were being worked hard by their teacher. Jiraiya was watching as the main Naruto was busying blowing up his hands as he channeled wind chakra into his Rasengan. Off in the distance, you could hear several more clones arguing important things; chakra theory, elemental manipulation, control exercises and which new ramen to eat tonight. The whole island was covered in massive, gnarly tree courtesy of Naruto's practice with his tree release technique.

"You really have almost got it. It takes too long to charge up though. Keep practicing and I'll send Sheila over in a bit to heal your hands for the day." Jiraiya headed out as Naruto created more clones. He went over to the southern part of the island where he had Sasuke working on his stamina and lava release. The island was nearly twice as big.

Sasuke stopped where he had been directing large gouts of lava plumes. "Yes?" he asked in his surly way.

"Man, your actually weaker than you were yesterday," the Toad Sage complained. "You are going to be another year before you actually make the barrier wall I want."

"That's what you say every day. It still doesn't work, old man. I can see and calculate the height of my attacks and how hot they are," the broody boy retorted.

"It certainly isn't noticeably taller. How's that doing on catching up to your brother?" the sage asked snidely.

Sasuke's next gout of lava was an amazing plume of lava, easily twice as tall at two hundred feet. "We will see, won't we?" he said as he directed his lava into the sea in a explosion of steam.

Jiraiya just laughed as he trotted along like a demented old man, looking for his last student. He found her in the middle of a chakra sealing circle, working on a new seal that looked incredibly complicated. At the edge of the circle, twenty clones were busy doing different chakra exercises or reading scrolls.

"So, what exactly is this? Am improvement on your version of the Flying Thundergod Technique?" the old sage asked as he towered over the nearest clone.

"Close, but not quite. Time-space techniques are pretty tough to create." That clone had looked up from her scroll to judge what he was up to.

"So more barriers to block teleporting? Better, longer range?"

"We're still very preliminary, but it is something like that," she explained semi-evasively.

"Well, I'm off to see Tsunade and then contact a few of my spies. It appears Orochimaru has finally figured out that we are going to flood him out. He doesn't have enough standing forces to actually attack us effectively, so he's been retreating up to the Land of Earth. Heh. The old Tsutchikage has had to beef up his patrols. So he has accepted Orochimaru's status of Missing-Ninja."

"That's to keep renegades from amassing enough power to start another Great Ninja War, right?"

"Exactly. If they don't do anything, they've admitted assisting him and that will lead to another war. And they are years, if not decades, behind Konoha on teleporting seals." Jiraiya smile his goofy grin and the disappeared off to Konoha.

The primary Sheila opened her eyes as the seal suddenly wavered and then shifted, the illusion that had covered it fading like a shimmering heat. Even as she continued working on the seal (which was easily four times _more_ complicated than what Jiraiya had seen, Naruto _and_ Sauske had shown up.

"Hey guys," Sheila called out as she finished the seal up. She frowned as she realized that Sasuke has his Sharingan active. He was not supposed to overuse it, but she thought he may have figured out she was healing and regenerating his eyes when it started to ever weaken.

"Naruto said your clone wanted his help. And since it can't be anything delicate or intelligent, it must be a power thing," Sasuke said bluntly.

"Hey! Bastard!" the Nine-Tail demon container complained.

"That's true. I'm planning on testing my new space-time technique and it _is_ going to take more chakra than I can produce or draw off of the One Tail." She noted that Sasuke was even more observant than he had been before. His new eyes kept spotting her deceits.

"So what does this do?" Naruto asked.

"It should allows us to travel back in time."

Both Naruto and Sasuke looked shocked at that.

"That's not possible," Sasuke argued.

"Actually, I read an old ANBU report about a team that ran into what the captain believed was a future Konoha ninja and a puppet master also from the future." Sheila looked very excited suddenly. "That means I can get home."

"That sounds awesome! Let's do it right now!" the shortest member of Team 7 almost shouted.

"You are going to have to draw upon the Nine Tails for this. I'll be drawing upon Shukaku-" she started to say.

"-I can help too. We're a team, remember?" Sasuke's dark eyes dared her to argue the matter.

"We can do that. It will only take a minute, but we need to go back to the Elemental Lands. This island only popped up here about twenty years ago. I'd rather not have to swim to land," she noted.

* * *

With a boom, three figures appeared on a hillock overlooking Konoha.

"It worked," Sheila said softly, surprise on her face. "Look, the Fourth Hokage's face is untouched and the layout of the village is different."

Sasuke started mentally trying to place the year and if he could stop the destruction of his clan. "This is before the Nine Tail attack. And with the Fourth Hokage's bust there... That's only an eighteen month period." Really, far too early to intercede. Though he was in a good time to learn why it happened. Shadowing his younger brother would be a pain. Especially when he became an ANBU captain.

"So do we go into Konoha?" Naruto asked.

"Not as Leaf Ninja. Special Jonin would be too well known. And I'm sure that just telling them we are from the future would get us thrown into an ANBU special interrogation chamber faster than you can say 'future knowledge'."

That got both boys to wince. They all quickly divested themselves off all markers _except_ Sasuke's Uchiha clan marker.

"I'm pretty sure neither of the gate guards are Uchiha, but you'll probably have to show your Sharingan, Sasuke. Can you only do two tomoe?" she asked, even as she healed and regenerated his eyes again.

"Tricky, but doable. So we are students that just aren't in class?" he asked with a tight grin.

"If they are on guard, they'll check the records," the blond male noted. "I got caught a lot when they would check their books."

"Genjitsu. Specifically, a deja vu illusion. They will probably swear that they saw us before. And since they guard the gate..." she said adroitly.

"I'll have to remember that," the last... or not so last... Uchiha said as he could see how it would be useful.

The three kids wander through under a very light henge that made them look about a year younger. Sasuke made as if he was playing with his Sharingan while the mind-altering illusion tricked the guards into thinking they really had been there earlier.

It only took ten minutes to discover that they were here in Konoha eight days before Naruto's birthday. Sasuke was a tiny baby, which actually freaked out the young Special Jonin when he spotted his mother, brother and himself.

'Just about right,' Sheila muttered to herself silently.

Sasuke frowned at that as he read her lips from the edge of his vision. Since his vision was even more acute since he had awoken his Mangekyo Sharingan, he had been training himself to observe everyone constantly.

They headed out to rented a room and canvass the area.

* * *

Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, was tapping an entry in the gate journal. "What do you mean you could not find records of three academy students leaving to match their return?"

The chunin just nodded. "I could have sworn that I remember seeing them. One of 'em was an Uchiha. Must have just recently activated his Sharingan, as he was playing with it like they do. Damn ninjitsu stealers-" he started to complain.

"The only problem with your timing, gentlemen, is that it was during class. And I was not bothered today with a truancy complaint. Which means that none of the students were missing," the blonde leader of the village stated coldly. "I want an accurate description of them all right now."

They had definitely been under a genjitsu earlier. And a fairly subtle one, at that. Not many people would do just an emotion construct.

Inahori was actually a very good artist, which was a useful skill for a chunin on gate duty. He quickly sketched two blonds and one dark-haired boy that definitely fit the family resemblance of the Uchiha.

The Fourth frowned as he studied the lively boy with whiskers on his cheeks and the more serious looking girl. Probably not related.

Reports came in shortly of the trio just wandering around and right now eating Ramen of all things. The knucklehead of the group that could have been a blond Obito was on his sixth bowl.

"A little too salty," Naruto declaimed. It was hard to imagine that Ichiraku, his favorite ramen restaurant, was not the paragon of perfection he was used to.

Sheila was busy noticing the ANBU that was steadily piling up. She slipped some bills under her bowl. "We still need to find a place to stay for the night. Thank you, sir."

The last member of Team 7 was waiting impatiently. He had only barely touched his food. He led them down the street.

_"We have ANBU boxing us in. It appears that we are about to be jumped,"_ she said to Sasuke in a verbal code magically created just for his ears only. Turning to Naruto, she then said, _"We need to get ready to run-"_

That was when a blond man wearing a sleeves longcoat appeared in front of them with a yellow flash. "I would suggest you surrender," the Fourth Hokage declared in a very menacing tone.

Sheila's eyes opened a fraction wider as she realized that this was the most dangerous man she had _ever_ met. Including such luminaries as Itachi Uchiha, Kisame Hoshigaki and the Third Hokage himself, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Go!" she shouted even as she charged him while dropping smoke pellets. If she could only hold him for a second-

A chirping sound had Sasuke moving instantly even as he triggered his own variant of the Flying Thundergod Technique... Uchiha style. He had finally figured out a way to use his Mangekyo Sharingan to trigger the teleport effect. So Kakashi's lightning edge (chidori) blasted a hole in the wall, not his heart. Even so, he was sent staggering front the very small hole burned in his armored vest at their rally point.

Two dozen Naruto clones leaped out of the smoke with a war cry, only to end up skewered by the rest of the ANBU. Luckily Naruto had actually slipped into the ground and then popped away.

The team of Ino-Shika-Cho team were the only Jonin in position to try to help the Hokage attempt to apprehend, but she was very fast indeed. Even to Kakashi's Sharingan eye, she was almost a blur of motion as she dispelled Shika's shadow, dodged Inoiuchi's disruption attack and then Judo-tossed the Akimichi through three buildings, only to end up being driven backwards as she desperately cut two of the Hokage's special kunai in half.

The hokage created a Rasengan with one hand, the swirling ball of chakra snapping into existence and not giving her the chance to do any one-handed seals even as part of her chest armor was shredded. So she was exceedingly happy when she felt the tug of a summon and appeared on a unrolled scroll with a seal in a circle on it.

"Wahoo!" Naruto crowed. "And you told me that I wouldn't need to use a summoning scroll ever again.

"Holy crap is he fast. I need to work on my speed again," the girl said.

"I am going to punch Kakashi the next time I see him," Sasuke complained. "He nearly ripped my heart out."

"Ah, we should just be lucky to have escaped," the knucklehead of the group said with a wide, shit-eating grin on his face.

"We need to do more than survive, Naruto." Sheila stood up and patted her legs. "After all, we know where a Tailed Beast is going to be escaping in just seven more days. And standing orders from our Hokage to capture it." She could finally have enough power to traverse time back to her past!

Both of the boys frowned as they considered things. Naruto looked over at the broody, dark-haired friend with a question on his tongue only to blink at his swirling eyes for just a second.

* * *

Shika was looking quite focused. "We did not capture one of them at all?"

Choza tromped over from the three houses he had been thrown through. "No injuries except my pride. These happen to be the only three houses that were empty on this block."

"She had enough sense to do that?" the head of the Nara asked even as he went over the text-perfect ambush. It was obvious they knew they were about to be attacked, but still... The Hokage, three jonin and two squads of ANBU failed to catch three kids? Though admittedly, they were _just_ running away.

"Pakkun says that the blond boy went to ground here. His clones were pure distraction," Kakashi said as the ANBU Dog.

"They must have had some way to signal for someone outside the village to use a summoning scroll," the Fourth said. "What a strange technique she has. It was like space-time hiccuped for just a second as I was about to mark her with my technique. She was nearly as fast as the new Raikage and only fighting defensively." That would have ended up being a much longer fight if the A had been fighting defensively from the beginning, though it just was not in his personality.

"Minato, that boy with the whiskers..." Choza finally said.

"Yes, I realized that it was probably him, but he was a lot younger. Sealing that power should have sent him back. And he did not seem to understand that he was in the past before, but did this time," the Fourth noted.

Inoich frowned. "That was definitely an Uchiha and one I've never met. He had three tomoe in each eye. Fully developed at his age."

"He dodged my lightning edge," Dog said as he dismissed his tracking summon.

"We'll have to beef up our security. Have they figured out what genjitsu they used on the gate guards?" he asked one of the newly arriving ANBU.

"Deja-vu genjitsu and the flashing of a kid with Sharingan, like he was playing with it. Otherwise, they just kept on walking like it was their home village," Tiger said as he bowed to the Hokage.

"Ballsy brats," Shika said with a grin. "Though all it appears they learned is that Tenchu's ramen still needs some work."

"Give the stand some time." Minato was studying the ramen stand closely, then shook his head. It was highly unlikely he was a spy. Given the blonde being a time traveler, he had probably eaten at that place in the future.

* * *

The three Special Jonin had been preparing for the night of Naruto's birth. And to one person in particular, he had a question. But only after he prepared for the worst. "Say, Sheila? If we defeat the Nine Tail back here, what happens to the future?"

"It becomes a potential future again. We will have changed Konoha fairly drastically and saved a lot of lives," she answered easily as she stared down the valley. The two statues on either side of the waterfall looked forbidding in the darkening sunset.

"What happens to the _people_ then? Like ones that aren't born?" he continued even as Sasuke watched carefully from the sidelines.

"They might not be born. One little thing, like the flap of a butterfly wing, could disrupt storms." The young girl started to frown.

"No way in hell. I can't agree to wiping out people that aren't even born," he shouted at her, looking pretty angry.

"It's a little late to be backing off now." She suddenly turned on him, her blue-green eyes very cold and hard. "Don't get in my way, Naruto."

"Or you will what? Beat us both up?" Sasuke asked with very narrowed, angry eyes.

"If I have to. Naruto, I thought you wanted to stop the Nine Tail and keep your parents from dying?" the tallest member of Team 7 asked in a pleading tone.

"And if you get the Nine Tailed Fox's power... you are going to try to head further into the past, aren't you. We aren't stupid, Sheila. You mean to go all the way to your past and keep this future from happening, aren't you?"

"And what if I am?" Sheila snapped at them. "They were billions of people on Earth when the Ten Tailed Beast was unleashed. It took destroying the Moon to defeat it and that nearly wiped out humanity! It would be a better place!"

"But it would not be Konoha. And it would not be my friends! My companions!" Naruto shouted. "If I have to, I'll stop you, Sheila!"

"You have something planned," the young girl suddenly realized.

Sasuke just smirked at that. "We planned for days."

That sent a chill down her back. Had she been so single minded to not see them plotting behind her back to stop her?

* * *

_The walls were black with red light as Naruto suddenly realized that his best friend had put some sort of illusion upon him. "What the hell, Sasuke?" Everything seemed reversed somehow._

_"She's obsessed." He was looking almost regal as he stood there, his knife-bladed irises maintain his illusion world. "And she might destroy everything in her quest to get home." There were shadowy bars behind him._

_"She's not like that," Naruto argued._

_Sasuke looked away. "I see my old self, things that scare me. She trains as hard as ten people, even though she is a super-genius. You've seen it in her eyes. She's desperate for power. Now that she has a working time-travel technique, she's going to get as much power as fast as she can."_

_"You don't know that." Naruto crossed his arms on his chest._

_"She wants the Nine Tail for herself. But she's not doing it to save you or even the Fourth, your father," Sasuke noted. "She already told us that it requires _its_ power to travel through time. Even if it is only a week-"_

_"NARUTO UZUMAKI!" the Nine Tailed demon breathed out, a fetid roar of its intense whisper. "She is not human, so is not limited to a purely physical world. She wishes to _unmake_ us."_

_Both of the ninja turned to the blazing red eyes behind the cage-seal._

_"What do you want, fuzzball?" his captor shouted._

_"Your death. Freedom. But I will settle for... not being __**unmade**__." The terrible red eyes behind the bars seemed bloodshot with evil chakra. "I will not let her travel to the past and stop the creation of the Ten Tail, nor its defeat and being split into the Nine Tailed demons."_

_"Big words for the captive," Sasuke sniped with a sneer on his face._

_"For this one time, I will help you with all my will. But power is not enough, whelps. You will have to outdo her, out think her. Or the world is doomed." The Nine Tail's glare was disappearing into the shadows._

_"Then we had better plan," the demon container said softly. "I hope we are wrong."_

_"We aren't." Sasuke's words held a chilling finality to them._

* * *

Sheila suddenly blurred down the valley, desperately fast. If she could get away, they were not likely to catch up to her as her fingers tried to activate her technique. Her marker back near the entrance of Konoha was destroyed?

"Tree summoning forest trap!" Naruto shouted out, a red aura already forming about him. His hand slammed down upon the ground, causing the prepared trees further down the valley to suddenly rocket up in height an block out the sunset and sky.

"Tsukuyomi," Sasuke called out, his shurikan-shaped irises locking onto to her own as she appeared out of the space-time forest trap... just where they had planned.

As they appeared in her mind-scape, the last loyal Uchiha new what he had to do. This would drain him, but it should make her nearly catatonic. "You are within my illusion, where I am master. For the next two days, you will experience-"

Her eyes met his in fear and anger, her own Sharingan swirling. "I won't be stopped by this trick again. Every power has a counter." Ichor thrummed through her body as she desperately sought to awaken her stolen eyes.

Sasuke blinked as he saw her develop silvery-rimmed Mangekyo Sharigan. "That's not possible-"

"Tsukuyomi... Shatter the World!" she shouted from her position where she was tied to to a rock.

And the illusion world shattered.

"Rasengan!" Naruto was shouting out in the real world with one of his favorite attacks ready, only to miss as the girl suddenly became active. "Oh, crap!"

"Not good enough," she shouted as her two hands wove a dual-chakra storm series of bolts. She was almost a blur of motion.

Her target whipped his Rasengan in between him and the attacks as the swirling ball of chakra grew huge in his hand. "I need more power." The Rasengan managed to shred the white beams, but that only deflected them slightly. His chakra cloak soaked up most of the rest as four tails of power appeared. "Nggrrrrh." He could feel some of his skin burning, but it was secondary. The whisker marks on his cheeks and his bestial claw-like hands could be totally ignored even as the Nine Tails regenerated his liver and left shoulder.

Sheila suddenly found herself on the defensive again. "You never had this much control before," she noted in frustration as she unfurled several scrolls that suddenly exploded white sand. Her eyes had switched to black diamonds on golden irises. Shukaku was screaming vengeance, but slowing down Naruto just slightly. But that's all it was doing was _slowing_ him down.

"I'm not going to let you destroy our Konoha! Tsunade! The old perv! Sakura! I care for all of them and I won't let you erase them!" Naruto was shouting in rage. Even with the demon not fighting him, anger stilled burned from the chakra.

"Demon wood binding!" she called out even as she grew four great trees up.

The trees exploded as Sasuke rejoined the battle, his lava edge attack have struck through three of the bindings easily as his fist dripped flaming lava. "Naruto, quit holding back," he ordered.

"This isn't easy without practice, bastard!" he shouted as he formed five Rasengans to chew up the last tree.

Sasuke was already forming another gout of lava that he sent in a wave against their renegade member. So when an equal amount of ice slammed into it, the impact was quite explosive and heard for miles.

Naruto was glad for the sand that was trying to kill him, as it actually worked as a bit of shielding. Where did she go.

"After the easier to hurt target," she said as she appeared behind Sasuke.

He turned around as fast as possible, desperately trying trying to block strike to his chest. That was the last thing he saw as his eyes were cut open by Sheila's straight blade. He screamed in agony as his sharingan eyes were split in half.

"And now there is one," the demigoddess said while panting heavily.

"SASUKE!" Naruto roared as three more arms grew out of his back. His skin was now cracked and his eyes were a solid burning ember of red sunlight. All seven arms created Rasengans, each wobbling unstably as flickers of black energy appeared in them.

Shukaku's sand was obliterated by the attack even as Sheila desperately flashed across the river, an enraged Naruto right behind her. She frowned as she felt a flicker as everything wavered. A sickening feeling hit her stomach as she realized that they must have been trying to return them to the future. A seething anger welled up. "You might have figured out how to unravel my time travel technique, but I'll change that future at least a little!"

Naruto's obscured face almost showed his puzzlement. Unraveled it?

The One Tail's sands obliterated the statue of Hashirama Senju even as her dual-chakra storm bolts exploded right through the statue of Madara Uchiha across the waterfall.

With a wrench as her last chakra failed, all three Leaf Ninja reappeared in the Valley of the End of the future.

"No!" Sheila had stopped and was looking around frantically. There was no forest trap and both statues were back exactly where they were supposed to be. She had only a moments warning before a cart-sized Rasengan slammed into her like the freight train of the gods.

"And stay down!" Naruto shouted at the girl in the bottom of the crater. Her limbs were all bent at weird angles.

It was starting to rain as she whispered, "You didn't unravel it, did you? It snapped us back to our present. Everything I did, undone." She just stared into the clouds. She tried to hide her sniffles, but she had been working so hard on getting home and it had all been for nothing.

Naruto created a few clones to rush over to Sasuke. "Well, I guess we won. How come it feels like we lost?"

"Because we nearly killed each other and found out how good we really are," Sasuke stated softly. His face was covered in blood as he dimly realized he was in shock.

"I won't be able to go back," the young girl sniffled out. "All I want to do is go home."

"Home is where your heart is. Ah, man. Sasuke, can they fix that?" the blond knucklehead asked.

"I have spares at home," he groused.

There was some really disgusting cracking a popping noises as Sheila healed her limbs. "I can fix that now." She crawled to the edge, feeling painfully weak. "Heh. Guess I better take a couple of soldier pills." She crunched on two just to be safe, then created a clone. "I- I'm sorry guys. I'm just a really big screw up."

Naruto still had his chakra cloak up, but nodded even as he mostly reverted to his natural form. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to give him eyes, of course." She created a clone that immediately removed her undamaged eyes one by one. It only took the clone about five minutes to replace them both.

He blinked in confusion as he looked through new, perfect eyes. Everything was more clear than he had ever seen before.

The clone dispersed as Sheila healed his cut nose and cheeks with a touch, leaving only a faint bruising. Then green healing chakra flowed from her hand, healing a bit of the worst of the bruising.

"Sooo... where does this leave us?" Naruto asked.

"I need to get my head on straight," Sheila said in a quiet, pained manner. "I guess I needed the stupid beaten out of me."

"I'm good at beating stupid out of people!" Naruto boasted proudly.

"Idiot, we are usually beating the stupid out of _you_," Sasuke griped. "What about your eyes?"

"Oh, once I've rested a bit, I'll regrow them. After the last time I lost my eyes, I bent my ichor to figuring out how to regenerate. I'm just too tired to do it right now."

Naruto put an arm under both of them and then with his handseals, sent them back to the Island of the Leaf.

Somehow in the shadows of the sunset, both statues seemed to weep as echoes of a time that should not exist rung through their stone. Fate bore down upon the area, as the forest seemed to become something worse as if remembering how to entrap even a demigoddess as the frailty of the stone struggled against a time that never existed.

* * *

Jiraiya looked at all three of them comically. "Where did you run off to? I was only gone for a few days! Tsunade was getting pissed and I was the only target!" He was just glad she was sadistic enough to fix his legs so he could search for them. "Where were you? None of my tracking seals could find you." He frowned at that. Only the one on Naruto was still working.

"I tried a time-travel technique. And then we got into a fight because of my stupidity. By the way, the Fourth Hokage is _really_ fast," Sheila said in a slightly evasively manner.

"You fought the Fourth Hokage and lived?" the old sage asked comically, pointing at her.

"Hey! We're awesome!" Naruto shouted at him.

"We _mostly_ ran away. We're all tired and in pain. It's been a long week," Sasuke said in a cold manner.

"This is great! Let me get you settled and I'll go send a messenger to Tsunade!"


	6. Wars End - Akatsuki Begins

_Konan sped through the trees in superhuman, fast leaps. She had important information for Pein and the others. She felt almost naked as she only had regular clothes, four kunai and two scrolls of paper that did not even have any explosive tags written upon them._

_She was following the river up to the Valley of the End when she paused. The red-head frowned as she looked around. Everything looked the same, but their was an unease permeating the air. A thick, fetid atmosphere seemed to have eclipsed the area, much like the leavings of chakra after battling a Tailed Demon or its container._

_And yet the area itself seemed untouched since the last time she had been by. The two ninja of antiquity still stared at each other across the waterfall, as they always had._

_'Though there might be a reason for that,' Konan mused. If the Uchiha of Team Seven became the container of a Tailed Demon, then the entire team could be called Team Demon. Instead of merely 'the new three ninja'._

_That such a thing could be possible was something Nagato had never planned for and should be impossible. But somehow Konoha had figured out a way to bind a Tailed Demon into a teen, a secret thought lost to that hidden village of the Whirlpools. Konan shuddered at the thought of the Professor, The Legendary Sucker or the Toad Sage with the power of a Demon on top of their nearly legendary power. Orochimaru having that sort of power nearly made her physically ill._

_With that thought driving her, she continued her run to the Land of Rain._

_Behind her, black sand started to weep from the statues._

* * *

Akatsuki was once more called to order. Pein's lavender Rinnegan eyes studied all of various members of the group. "Konan has returned from her recon of Konoha."

Kisame Hoshigaki sneered at the female ninja. "I don't know why we even have her. She's weak and now that damned big-titted cow in charge of Konoha knows how she spies." He leaned on Samehada in his projection. The living sword of shredding seemed to pulse its scales.

"While it is true that Konoha is now aware of how to notice my spying, I feel it was worth it for the information I managed to recover," the girl with the paper flower in her hair said. "I have discovered the container for the One Tail."

"Ah right! That means its Art Time!" Diedara almost shouted. He, like most of the members of Akatsuki, was here only in projection in the cave before the demon sealing statue.

"It is Sheila of the Leaf," Konan stated.

That seemed to confuse the other members.

"So her seal is unstable? How long until she dies and it fails?" Kakuzu the ancient ninja from the era of the First Hokage asked.

Pein interceded at this point. "She shows no sign of ill health. Nor can we discount that she might have figured out a way to seal a Tailed Beast into an adult. Or even a very young chunin. She seems to have a very keen mind."

Sasori clattered slightly as he stood in his hunched over way. "You are not seriously considering that Konoha has figured out a way to seal the Tailed Demons into full adults and allow them to access the beasts total powers, are you?"

The Rinnegan studied him carefully. "We have to consider it possible. If each of the Kages or other S-Rank ninja of the main villages were to be able to gain that power..."

Hidan seemed unimpressed. "Each of us can easily defeat-"

"Don't be a fool, death priest." Sasori seemed very intent. "Defeating children with the power of a Tailed Beast is nothing compared to the likes of the Hokage or the Tsuchikage. Can you imagine the Raikage with the power of the Three Tail on top of his own lightning speed?"

"So we need to double team the One and Nine Tails, right?" Diedara asked in confusion.

"They are under the protection of Jiraiya," Itachi noted, his own Sharingan studying every member closely. "Also, while we could potentially muster enough power to defeat him, two demon containers and my brother, they are likely to almost instantly summon reinforcements as they do against the Sound in their war."

"I have been speaking with a master of time-space techniques. He is sure that he can counter their ability to summon reinforcements... at least once. The area that can be sealed though is only about ten kilometers wide. It is likely that they will appear at the edge of the field and then track us at full speed to where we will have to enact our ritual." Pein let that sink in to them.

"Then we better make it count," Kisame remarked harshly.

"And it is still too early. Our timeline is to start to take the Tailed Beasts starting next year. So we must spy on the 'Neo-Sennin' and learn their weakness," Pein ordered, causing grumbles among the attendant monsters.

That was when the black and white Zetsu finally spoke. "Master Pein, I must admit that I can't keep those three under watch. They have somehow figured out a way to spot me."

"Doesn't the girl use clones to continue to work and study within Konoha?" Itachi asked in his flat, dead tone.

"Both spies are unable to directly keep an eye on Konoha?" Kakuzu said as he narrowed his beady eyes. "That is worrisome."

"Then it will fall to you, Sasori of the Red Sands, to keep us appraised of what is going on within Konoha," Pain stated.

The beetle-looking member of Akatsuki nodded slightly. "I will need the assistance and knowledge of Itachi in my endeavors."

"You will have it," the missing ninja of the Uchiha stated simply in reply.

* * *

Sasuke did not feel pain in his eyes as he shifted it from black obsidian to three tomoe, then to shuriken Mangekyo. In the reflection of the mirror, he saw the pale-silver edging and could not be sure what it meant. Could it have to do with how Sheila had activated them to break her out of his own Tsukuyomi? He shook his head as he exited his little wooden cottage.

"Morning!" Naruto called out as he opened the door to his own little house he had created. Wood techniques were the best for the comfort of home! "Where's Sheila?"

"I think I heard her head out for a run. She will be back in about ten minutes," the last, loyal Uchiha stated simply as he started to warm up.

The young member of the Senju clan looked a bit confused. "You know, I still don't understand where she is running. The island is way too small for her speed."

"She's running on top of the ocean, Naruto." Sasuke tried to ignore the blonde's ability to be dense at times.

"Oh, I guess that works."

Sasuke sighed. There were days he wondered how even with that "secret test" that Naruto became a ninja. That was when he tensed at someone intruding through the sensor wards of the island. "Naruto, we have unexpected visitors."

They both took off to the other side of the island, seeing a group of ninja walking on the surface of the ocean from the north.

"Sound ninja. How did Orochimaru find us?" Naruto asked even as he sent off several clones to pass on messages to warn of the attack.

They barely reacted to the sneak attack from behind as two large snakes tried to bite them, missing by the barest of margins.

The figure behind them made a 'kukukuku' sound. "Much better than just a year ago."

"Don't you have a village to run?" Sasuke remarked in a seemingly bored voice.

"He probably has to use his desk for a boat!" Naruto joked with a terribly wide grin on his face.

That caused Orochimaru to hiss at them in annoyance. "It took a while to find your lovely little hidey hole, but I really need to get rid of you before you manage to destroy everything I've worked towards. Konoha was supposed to be a mere shell of its power, not suddenly the preeminent Hidden Village," the Snake Sennin said with a cold smile on his face. "I will enjoy-"

"Lord Orochimaru, she's returning," a red-headed girl with glasses called out as she opened her eyes.

With a flash, Sheila reappeared on top of a boulder overlooking the Sound Ninja. "They finally found us." Her blue-green eyes were studying the Snake Sennin and his forces here. When she spoke, it was in a strangely coded way that only her two teammates understood. "He has three jonin level people here at least. The rest are chunin at best-"

Orochimaru smiled nastily. "It's so impolite to hold a conversation and exclude us. We will have to train some manners into you for the last moments of your life."

Around the island a purple-green barrier rose up and sealed them in.

Sasuke's Sharingan was whirling as he traced the chakra patterns. "A-Rank anti-transportation barrier. It will even stop most summons."

Only Sasuke and Sheila actually noticed the subtle widening of the leader of Sound's eyes. "Kill them all," the Missing Ninja called out.

"With pleasure. You guys all talk to much," a man with spiky dull blond hair shouted, even as his arms transformed in a similar manner to the curse seal. With a roar, he charged forward and swung his massive fists at the nearest Leaf ninja, causing Naruto to bounce back in a dodge while twenty clones appeared.

"Let's get wild!" the young Uzumaki shouted as he pulled out a kunai and charged up rasengans in each of the clones hands. Then he tossed the kunai a bit haphazardly at the Sound Ninja. With a flash he and his clones traversed the distance to his Flying Thunder God seals and killed three chunin with streamers of light.

Only Karin, the chunin sensor, had properly detected his attack, while the jonin had managed to mostly get out of the way. Well, except for the hooded one in the middle who had not bothered to flee. Little flakes of his body just started to swirl back to reform his body.

"Impure World Resurrection-" Sheila started to say when she grabbed her neck and shoulder in apparent pain with her left hand. Something seemed to be bulging from her neck like some giant boil as her triple redundancy seals sought to contain the cursed Seal of Heaven.

"Seal of Heaven unlock," Orochimaru called out as he finished his hand-seals. "Jugo, kill her"

The half-transformed berserker roared as he charged forward, slamming his gray fists down in a massive pile-driver attack. Two dainty hand had caught them, much to his and Orochimaru's surprise.

"You can control your chakra in such a state?" the rogue sannin asked even as he dodged (by the barest of margins) Sasuke's Lava Edge attack. The chakra lava attack blasted a fifty foot long divot into the island, causing Karin to whimper and scramble away.

Naruto blinked in shock as the ninja with shark-like sharpened teeth just blew apart into water from his Rasengan. "Whoa-what!?" The water fist blasted his chin and sent him flying. Two of his clones popped up out of the ground and caught him, one going so far to slap him coherent.

The Mist Missing Ninja frowned at that as he was not quick enough to capitalize on the opening. Jugo was having a bit of a problem and even Orochimaru had to focus on his Sharingan using foe. "Kabuto, start killing them already," he complained loudly.

The dead Sound Ninja medic nodded as he tossed his hood back. He charged forward to sever hamstrings or tendons, killing two of Naruto's clones with a bit of effort. "You've improved, boy," the traitor to the Leaf noted in a deadened voice.

"Man, that is so creepy," Naruto complained even as he made a hand-seal and disappeared with a flash of yellow. His after-image was punched through by Kabuto.

The remaining chunin except for Karin were busy activating their second level seal, seemingly turning into inhuman looking monsters. Jugo was chasing after the black and white camouflaged demigoddess, weathering the blows raining down upon him. He had a grim smile on his face. "Having a problem using your ninjitsu?" he asked in a condescending manner.

"Yes, so change of plan," the girl said as she slipped out two short swords that were similar to Roman gladiuses. It was a moment of concentration and they started to crackle with lightning through her mastery of the divine nature of the Storm, not a ninja technique. She suddenly charged back and slammed both sword hard on his huge, gauntlet-like arms. The double boom of thunder was nearly deafening and blasted Jugo over two hundred feet into the ocean.

"What the hell was that?" one of the transformed monsters asked even as they blurred over to surround the demigoddess.

Said demigoddess narrowed her eyes, even as she brought into this world a pale fragment of war; the Perfect Soldier, cold and ruthless. Suddenly, all of the second-stage curse seal chunin had to steel their raging will, shying away from her as she appeared behind the first one, removing his head with a splatter of blood.

The undead Kabuto charged at her, only to see her move at nearly flicker-movement speeds of about fifty to seventy-five feet a second as she beheaded yet another stage-two heaven seal user. "You will eventually get tired," Kabuto said, a dark glint in his eyes. There was no conflict with wanting to kill the girl that captured him. That had led to his death by torture, after all. Rapid flicker travel would- Kabuto suddenly stopped chasing her as he suddenly noticed something.

There was no swirl of leaves, water droplets, sand, dust or mist when she moved.

"You aren't using chakra," the undead genius declared even as his arm was ripped off by one of Naruto's rasengan. His dead flesh swirled back together.

Orochimaru flickered away from Sasuke faster then the boy could keep up. "What are you gabbling about?" He guessed that the old adage about if you wanted something done right, you had to do it yourself. "Seal of Heaven- burn." His hands were flickering though seals faster than most jonin could even see. Then a final seal as he substituted one of his mud clones that exploded from Sheila and Naruto attacking it. "Expel."

The young scion actually screamed this time as the center of the blister that was the cursed seal ejected all of its absorbed, malignantly changed chakra in a spray of black blood. It actually ripped a greater portion of her own chakra out in the process. With her eyes closed for just a second, Kabuto struck with his lethal chakra scalpels across her neck. She collapsed onto her face, a large pool of blood forming on the rock of the island they had called home.

"Sheila!" Naruto shouted as he created two rasengans and slammed them home through the Impure Resurrection's torso.

Jugo charged in and roared as he reshaped one of his arms into a vicious, claw like a razor edged, alien scorpion and ripped off the boy's right arm as he spotted the opening the boy's frontal assault had given him. "Got you. That just leaves the Uchiha for you, Suigetsu. Don't forget, Orochimaru wants him alive."

"I know," the Mist Ninja snapped back.

Said Uchiha was very seriously considering the matter. He could probably defeat one of the Snake's jonins, but with the number of ninja and Orochimaru himself... He flung one of his improved kunai in an apparent near miss against Jugo and the redhead sensor (that was sneaking around) and then made a handsign.

The moment Sasuke appeared on the water he was charging the barrier as he pulled out a very wide, flat dagger covered in runes from a sealed space on his arm. Effectively what he had was a portable barrier that reacted very violently with it struck another barrier technique. Now if he really was twice as powerful as one of the Sound Ninja outside, he might not fry himself like a bug.

The flat, glowing, seal-rune covered dagger slammed home against the purple barrier. Both techniques struggled against each other for just a second.

"No!" Orochimaru shouted, though whether it was to stop Sasuke's apparent suicide or if he had divined the reason for the reaction.

The Sound Ninja at the west most point of the four corner seal technique felt the barrier react, then wondered why everything was spinning around as his head splashed into the water. Then the rest of his body followed as it forgot how to mold chakra.

With a flash from hidden seals on the island, Leaf ninja from Konoha appeared. Tsunade Senju, the Fifth Hokage stared haughtily at her old team mate. At her side was the near giant of the Toad Sage, Jiraiya. The other side had a silver-haired jonin with one Sharingan eye revealed. More jonin, special jonin and even a few powerful chunin had been transported by the summoning technique.

"Orochimaru, it is time to die," the buxom leader of Konoha declared.

The leader of the Hidden Village of Sound just chuckled. "You don't think I am going to stay here where I'm outnumbered-!?" His swipe across his arm's tattoo seal had failed to summon a new breed of snake that could swallow him and then return to their jungle lands.

At that point, the Sheila that had appeared at Kakashi's side, reacted to the sight of the figure bleeding out. The clone realized that her real self was on the edge of death. She frowned as she thought over the medical techniques she could use. With a shake of her head, she realized that they would take too long in the middle of a combat. She latched onto the divine ichor transplanted into her and then healed up the Sheila dying on the ground. This overloaded her fragile cloned existence, causing her to revert to black inky blood in a spray of smoke.

"I'm alive?" Shelia croaked. "Then we succeeded at drawing him into the trap." She struggled weakly to her feet.

"Yes, Orochimaru has been drawn into our trap. It appears you managed to figure out how to pierce the enemy's barrier. Well done. As expected of Team 7. Now, kill his underlings. The traitor is ours." Tsunade blasted forward in a blur, covering the distance in half a second and lashing out with a kick.

Orochimaru ducked the kick, but not her other foot as Tsunade seamlessly continued the spin to lash out to his face with a perfectly controlled snap-kick to his face. He rocketed away to smash into a large obsidian boulder with bone-breaking force.

"That's better than you have been-" The snake sannin heard the chakra grinding through the air as his right side armor was ripped of by Jiraiya's Rasengan.

"Good student's push their teacher." The old pervert created another Rasengan in his hand, larger and more tightly controlled.

Orochimaru had to vomit a replacement body, shedding his old damaged one and then slipping under both of his old teammates well planned attack. "We shall have to see. Let's test how long you can last," he said with a smile still on his face.

The red-headed sensor ninja from Sound had thrown up her hands. "I surrender! I surrender!"

"Oh, you bitch! I'm going to rip your head off for that," Jugo complained loudly even as he turned his fists into rock-like battering rams. The kunai into his back hardly annoyed him. But the flash of Sasuke arriving, a Chidori already landing from his version of the Flying Thunder God punched through the half-monster ninja. Jugo looked down at the crackling hand that had emerged where his heart had been. With a pained groan, he collapsed to the ground, dying.

"I'm just about spent, Kakashi," the last Uchiha admitted. Two special jonin had stabbed down with a kunai and a short straight blade on Jugo's neck to make sure he was dead.

"Don't worry, I think we can handle this," his masked ex-teacher said in a way that almost seemed like a smiling wink.

Kabuto was busy fighting against Maito Gai, Asuma Sarutobi, Anko Mitarashi and Neji Hyuga

Naruto had never stopped glowing with the hellish aura of the Nine Tailed Fox. "Damn that hurts," he complained. How was he supposed to fight?

"Naruto. One second." Sheila moved next to him, feeling the drain on her body and mind greatly. She was holding out a strange, silver amulet in front of her.

With a shout of surprise, Naruto suddenly flexed his regrown arm. "Whoa, cool! Did you learn that from Granny?"

"The copycat Kakashi?" the half-water Suigetsu said. "Too bad your Sharingan can't copy my power." He charged forward, only to see his punch pulverize the ground and not the two Sharingan-wielding ninja. He ignored throwing stars, kunai and even one massive club that splashed into his watery form from several of the reinforcements.

"Hmm. Tricky. I suppose I could see if you can survive being electrocuted, but I suspect you can with that strange form." Kakashi suddenly started to make two sets of hand-seals, then suddenly exhaled a cone of pure cold ice-shards right in the Missing Ninja of the Mist. With a single forefinger, he flicked the abruptly created ice-statue with one finger, knocking it over.

Anko smirked at that.

"Decided to use some physics against him, Kakashi?" Sheila said, before swallowing three soldier pills and crunching noisily on them. She made a face at the bad taste of the pills.

"Just a little research for an upcoming mission, I think. Water freezes or turns to steam, but it takes a lot more chakra to heat up the water than it does to freeze it."

Sasuke nodded at that as Tsunade and Jiraiya continued to battle their old teammate. "They are going to destroy our island."

"We expected that," Naruto noted as he watched the previous Team 7 continue to battle. "Man, this might take a while."

* * *

Off in the distance on the horizon, three ninja were standing on the ocean's waves while they studied the fight off in the distance.

Pein's Rinnegan took in the details that only the possessor of an eye-technique bloodline could hope to see. "How long, Zetsu?" His red hair could possibly stand out on the waves, but he doubted anyone would see them at this distance.

"About twenty minutes," the black and white spy-monster of Akatsuki stated. "Though it appears it was a trap of some sort."

"Yes. Orochimaru was tricked into attacking them on Tsunade's order. Thankfully, while these Neo-Sannin are dangerous, they are not quite to the level of their mentors," the other red and black cloaked Akatsuki said. His swirled mask only had one eye hole which the Sharingan stared out of.

"They are altering the face of war and commerce. I have heard that Konoha can deploy their ninja to their borders within mere hours," Pein said as he watch passively. "This allows them to utilize their ninja more effectively. They waste less time on travel, so earn their village more money."

"We are still undercutting their business," Tobi noted.

"Only Sunakagure is feeling the effect of our plan to cripple their economy. And they have finally moved to choose their new kage," Zetsu interjected helpfully from his half-opened Venus flytrap that floated on the surface of the water.

"Yes, that might start to hinder our continuing objective in the Land of Wind," Pein said. "There. That is a very subtle barrier. ANBU masks."

Both eye techniques had finally spotted a group of ANBU that had set up in an nearly invisible fog bank. The genjitsu was subtle, but nothing that their eyes could not pierce once aware of it.

Zetsu smirked evilly. "So it is time to kill them and let Orochimaru rampage some more."

"A shorter, monkey-masked ANBU?" Tobi noted suddenly. "Sarutobi. While we might be able to defeat them and free Orochimaru, but one of us might die against him."

"I thought the Third Hokage had retired?" the black and white plant-thing asked in confusion.

"With his wife who was killed during the Nine Tails rampage," Tobi said in such a manner that almost seemed to allude to something deeper. "He will probably keep himself busy in the background. Perhaps replacing Danzo as the Root of Konoha."

"It is approaching the climax," Pein said as he turned his superior vision back to the far off battle.

* * *

Tsunade smashed her fist into the ground right next to Orochimaru again. "Wood prison encompassing style!" she abruptly called out as a huge amount of trees suddenly exploded out of the ground around the snake master.

"So you mastered that?" her old teammate said as he just barely escaped being imprisoned. The sleeves from his fancy kimono were not so lucky.

"Oh, no. I've barely started to learn. The fact that I can use some of the techniques in my healing is very useful," the busty leader of Konoha stated. The smirk on her lips said there was more to what she was saying than what was actually given out.

"Ku-ku-ku. This is really annoying," Orochimaru said as the ground was again pounded. If he had dared to slip into the ground to fight from below like he normally did, Tsunade would crush him. Damn her impossible strength. Another Rasengan nearly hit his leg even as he dashed backwards onto the water. His hands started to flash through a set of hand-seals, unleashing a dragon of water that roared like a waterfall as it charged towards them.

With a massive splash, it engulfed the Hokage and the Toad Sage's location with crushing power. It was the whirring-grinding noise of shaped chakra that gave Orochimaru just a split second warning as they came flying out of the Sun from their flicker escape upwards. The whirling attack missed even as Orochimaru started to smile when one, glowing green finger touched the back of his neck.

"You always did dodge to the left when you were surprised," Tsunade said as she landed lightly on the water, sheathing a rune covered kunai in her belt. Using one of the Neo-Sannin's teleportation techniques had been tricky in timing, but well within her capabilities. Especially as she could study the original Thunder God Technique.

Orochimaru was gibbering insanely in his mind as his body (his wonderful, immortal body!) betrayed him. Everything below his neck quit responding as he splashed face down into the water.

Jiraiya reached down and then pulled his old teammate out of the churning surf. "This is your end. I made a promise that I would bring you back to Konoha. And I am, with you as a prisoner."

The two of them walked back to the shattered island as the rest of the attack squad worked on containing the the Impure Resurrection of Kabuto.

"We'll have to look at a better way to counter this technique," Tsunade said seriously as the high level jonin worked at immobilizing him long enough to seal him away.

Finally after three more minutes, the undead was hidden within a massive amount of wrapped up bandages with a seal upon him.

Anko blew a raspberry at the captured undead. "I guess we need to find his sacrifice." The special jonin almost skipped away from Asuma, Maito, Kurenai and Inoichi. She stopped right next to their one captured Sound Ninja. "Hi!"

"Hi?" Karin responded carefully.

"You're going to tell me all about his sacrifice for the Summoning: Impure Resurrection technique. Or I'll string you up by your guts and lets snakes eat them in front of your face." Anko looked terribly cherubic (and oh so wrong) while saying this all with a cheerful tone of voice.

"EEEEP!"

* * *

Konoha was celebrating the end of the (mostly) one-sided war. It had been almost a week of open market parties and feasts. But all things came to an end. Especially for those just entering the truth of the ninja life.

Blue-green eyes looked over the expectant faces of the eleven years. Sheila stood in front of her students next to the chunin Iruka Umino. When she had started teaching two years ago, she had been the assistant and he the superior, but with her promotion to special jonin, she had been bumped up while the chunin had been working on the more standardized and improved curriculum she had laid the foundation on.

Konhamaru was giving the girl an odd look as he realized her black and white 'leaf' armored vest had changed. Hanabi Hyugi had also noticed, but had not deigned to make any visible note.

"Congratulations, graduates. Each of you has passed all of your tests with a grounding in what you are going to be expected to do as ninja of the Leaf," the young jonin said in a cool, collected voice but let a hint of pride show. "Everyone here has earned this and has exceeded the new requirements. Some of you flourished, all of you struggled at times."

Iruka nodded. "After this day, you will not be my students, but full fledged ninja of Konoha. We will start with your first team. Team 2 will be Hiroki Ugumi, Hebisu and Moegi, your jonin teacher will be Maito Gai."

The door opened and the green spandex wearing taijitsu specialist stepped in. He gave them a thumb's up and smile. "Come with me. I shall ignite the fire of your youth."

Several more teams were assigned when Iruka got to Team 8. "Konohamaru Sarutobi, Hanabi Hyuga and Itomi Abami. You will join jonin Sheila."

The class looked quite comical. "Noooo!" Konohamaru shouted out. He had thought he would escape his fiendish teacher. "I wanted my rival Naruto as teacher!"

Sheila coughed behind her hand to hide her smile. "Unfortunately, Jonin Naruto is currently undergoing advanced training outside of the village for a few months. You three, come along." Sheila had been a bit miffed that Jiraiya had taken him to talk to the Toad Clan. She really needed to look at a summon contract for herself.

She led them to the rooftop where she had them introduce themselves, their likes and dislikes.

"Very good. Usually you need to ask about your teacher, but you three already know about me. Now that you have passed the graduation test, you must still pass my test to qualify Team 8." She gave the three students a moment and it was the boisterous Konohamaru that figuratively blew up.

"WHAT!? We worked hard to pass that test," the grandson of the Third Hokage shouted loudly, getting a wince from the other two genin.

"So you think you are better than myself, every other jonin and all of the Hokages since the Third?" she replied dangerously, leaking a little killing intent.

"My grandfather took this test? Then I'll pass it for sure!" the scarf-wearing eleven year old promised.

"I would hope so, as this test still has a greater than fifty percent failure rate." Sheila hoped she had changed that by actually implementing team training exercises during class, but that would depend on how they meshed together. "I want you to show up at Training Ground Three at dawn. I don't suggest you eat, unless you want to puke it all out. It will be survival training."

Hanabi looked slightly ill, still remembering the chunin exam where the young jonin in front of her had humiliated her cousin, Neji Hyuga, who was very well known as a genius of the clan. Her sister had improved, but the fights between Hinata and Neji still generally went to the older boy. He had even just barely made special jonin.

Ikomi Abami looked decidedly unwell, as he was the bottom end of the class and knew he had only passed due to overworking himself for the last six months.

* * *

Jonin Sasuke Uchiha nodded to the chunin guard and secretary to the Hokage. The tower had been reinforced since the attack a few years ago.

"Go right in," the Hyuga said as she studied him closely.

"Thank you, Hebari," he replied politely, stepping through the door in the old Hokage's peacetime office.

The wide, open windows showed the magnificent view of the Konoha bluffs with the five busts of the Hokages. Tsunade Senju smiled, her lips clamped down on her old pipe as the scent of tobacco drifted across the room.

"You are looking well, Hokage," Sasuke said in a faintly mysterious manner. In fact, she looked nearly as young as her specialized genjitsu made her appear as. Though that seemed to be the only thing that it actually covered up. He turned to the two assistants of the leader of his village. One was the special jonin Shizune and the other was (he believed) the specialized clone of his teammate Sheila as they plowed through the early morning paperwork. Sasuke nodded gravely to the two young women.

The busty blonde narrowed her chocolate brown eyes for just a second, then smirked. "I'm glad you can tell. I have a top secret S-Rank mission that I need you and at least three chunin to undertake."

"Hnn." The last loyal Uchiha was intrigued, though he did not want to show it. "What is the objective?"

"Protection detail and to assist in the removal of two Akatsuki." She smiled as the dark-haired teen was suddenly quite visibly interested. "We don't know that it will be your brother..." After she trailed off, she pursed her lips. The boy had proven his loyalty and deserved to know the truth. "Shizune, I need the latest update reports on injured shinobi at the hospital. Why don't you stop on the way back for some special sake and buns."

The woman looked up at her old friend and mentor in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. Sheila-" Tsunade frowned as she remembered that it had been Sasuke that required the demigoddess to join his clan. "Please get the three of us a cup of tea."

After Shizune had departed on the entirely unnecessary task and the tea procured, Tsunade leaned across her mostly clean desk to look at the young jonin of Team 7. "I am afraid we shall have to discuss unpleasant matters concerning your clan," Tsunade announced. "As you know, we have been undergoing a deep interrogation of all Root ANBU and decoding all of Danzo's records." Here the Hokage shook her head. "It appears he's been coveting my hat since the Second Shinobi War. It's quite possible that he's compromised and damaged Konoha more than any single ninja in the history of the village. It's a very sordid mess and not even T&I or my code breakers know it all."

Sasuke was quite tense all of a sudden. "And what does this have to do with my clan?"

"Danzo was playing both sides against each other until he lost control of the clan leader of the Uchiha. Your father, Sasuke. Fugaku Uchiha had been carefully prodded into believing that Konoha saw the Military Police as being unneeded and curtailed as suspicion that your clan was behind the Nine Tailed attack fourteen years ago." Tsunade clenched down on her pipe savagely.

"No Uchiha would have been behind that attack," the dark, intense young man stated coldly.

"Yes... and no. One Uchiha was behind the attack, attacking the current demon container while she was weak and killing the Third Hokage's wife. The Fourth Hokage ended up battling someone who claimed to be Madara Uchiha and if they weren't him, then they were a very close fake."

"And you didn't exhume the grave of my ancestor?" Sasuke inquired.

Tsuande gave him a flat look. "Well given he was exiled after the battle with my grandfather, there are more rumored grave sites of Madara Uchiha than you can imagine. Hell, he's rumored to be buried under this very tower."

"Oh," Sasuke stated aloud in confusion and realized how bad of a tunnel vision Itachi gave him. He should have known that. He shook his head. "Wait, you said that Danzo fed bad information to my father until he lost control of the situation."

"Yes. Then at that point he pressured the Third Hokage and his advisers to wipe out the Uchiha clan before they could implement their supposed coup attempt." The old woman leaned forward. "Here is where things get confused. According to my old teacher, he never expected that Itachi could succeed at destroying your clan. He expected that Itachi would damage their leadership and perhaps kill most of the elders."

"Itachi killed them all! All except me!" Sasuke said in a loud, barely controlled voice. For him, this was the equivalent of a screaming fit.

"Danzo made sure that his orders included killing you, but that Itachi refused. Sarutobi believed after a careful check of the scene that Itachi was helped. He suspected Danzo and his Root, but according to Danzo's own records, he does not know who assisted your brother in murdering your clan. He only suspects that it has to do with a certain organization." The Fifth Hokage's warm, chocolate eyes tried to convey her sympathy. "My teacher felt the loss of the Uchiha was one of his greatest failures of his rule of Konoha. While we are hardened ninja, he never condoned the wanton slaughter of innocents. He personally helped clean up the slaughter of the women and children of your clan so they could be properly interred."

Sheila was frowning severely, as these were in none of the records that she had ever been given access to. "Lord Hokage-"

"Why was he declared a Missing Ninja?" Sasuke asked coldly.

"Danzo had covered up his orders and it was expedient." Tsunade sighed as she knocked the ashes of her tobacco out of her small pipe into a clay bowl, then set it on her large desk. "And, to be quite truthful, Hiruzen did not want this ugly mess to come to light. Better a single traitor that had done an atrocity than admit that one of Konoha's founding clans had been purged due to the threat of a coup. Spun this way, Konoha's weakness was shown as a possible strength that we can create such ninja while he worked to solidify the village."

Sasuke's black eyes were staring through the old woman as he tried to figure out what to say. To do. He felt as taut as a dry, wooden crossbow under too much pressure. Ready to snap.

Sheila was continuing to listen intently. "We don't know everything that happened there, do we?" The young jonin was not very happy at all with that thought.

"That is correct. We are sifting through shadows under a sliver of moonlight at night. Without a means of gathering more direct information, we don't know how an entire clan was killed, and more importantly who was behind it."

"Dead men tell no tales," Sasuke said bitterly with a sigh.

The young demigoddess frowned. "That's actually not true. Fifth Hokage, we do have eye witnesses of the events and a more in depth source of Danzo's treachery."

"And where exactly did you dig up these sources?" Tsunade asked as she refilled her pipe with tobacco with a hint of a smile that was almost condescending.

"Genetic samples and a forbidden technique. Perhaps the forbidden technique. Summoning: Impure World Resurrection." Sheila let them both take in a hissing, stunned breath. "Because Danzo himself knows what he did not write down and we can ask the slaughtered members of the Uchiha clan who murdered them."

Sasuke felt like someone just grabbed his chest and heart, squeezing it crushingly. He could not forget Orochimaru's use of that jutsu over the last few years. Nor could he forget how Danzo had to use what happened to his family to collect every set of Sharingan eyes for his own collection. However even in his complete disgust he couldn't discount how pragmatic and karmic this idea was.

Tsunade, for her part, was just as horrified at the thought. She clamped down hard on the thought of this technique ever being used for such evil, selfish reasons. Protecting Konoha was not selfish. "And who would you use for your sacrifices?"

"Irredeemable prisoners of war, of course."

"And that reminds me that we need to find better ways of disposing of enemy nins," Tsunade mused out loud given the fact of how Orochimaru's resurrected her grandfather and grand-uncle. "And perhaps ways to keep our own from being used that way as well."

Sasuke had been thinking hard on the matter. "Itachi is not the traitor we thought?" he muttered to himself.

"And is infiltrating Akatsuki on behalf of Danzo, part of his 'punishment' for not killing you," the older woman said as she took a careful sip of her tea, luxuriating in the simple pleasure. "That is, unfortunately, a group we have little information on yet. Though having Danzo's records, we have learned some worrying things. All of Akatsuki are S-Ranked Missing-Ninja except those from Rain. And that Pein is leader of Rain. He seems to have some grudge against Konoha."

Sheila shook her head. "Or against Jiraiya specifically. Konan mentioned that we should not send him to negotiate for her release. I think we need to get some specific information about those people from him."

Tsunade nodded, as that had not occurred to her. "So Itachi is on a deep cover mission at this time that is of vital importance. Which brings us to your mission, Sasuke. I need you to play bodyguard for Sheila's genin team."

The last Uchiha raised one dark eyebrow ever so slightly, as if querying her. "Sheila is competent enough to defend herself."

"And three snot-nosed genin? Besides, I want to set up a trap and start to winnow Akatsuki of their forces." The busty leader of Konoha frowned, upset at what she was about to say. "So they are bait."

"If they pass their test tomorrow," Sheila noted aloud.

They all nodded at that. Sasuke stood up and excused himself, as he had a lot to think about.

* * *

Sheila stood looking over her genin team who were all tied up to trees. "I'm impressed. It only took you about three hours to finally get the hidden meaning of my test." She pointed to the center tied up genin, Konohamaru Sarutobi, who was bound quite thoroughly to the tree. "You three actually passed the test."

She gave them a smile at that. The improved training at the academy had focused more on team building exercises. Both in following orders and in being able to give them.

"We passed!" whooped out the young Sarutobi. Even being tied upside down to a tree with thick ropes could not dampen his enthusiasm.

Hanabi nodded. "What now, teacher?"

Ikomi Abami nodded, his dull brown hair matted down with sweat and grime instead of sticking up like the head of a ragged brush like normal. "Yeah!"

The young jonin removed the ropes from the three genin with a single hand seal, send them rolling back down to the ground. "D-Rank missions. Luckily your missions you had as trainees in the Academy count, so we can hopefully get you to a C-Rank here in only a few weeks," the blonde demigoddess admitted. "Konohamaru and Ikomi? Head out for lunch. Report to the Hokage's tower in ninety minutes. Hanabi, come with me."

She waited for them to disappear out of the hilly, forested area of Training Ground 3, before turning back to her youngest and most taciturn member. "Is there a reason you have recently taken up wearing a headband?" she asked casually.

The young Hyuga froze at that. "It is a matter of clan business." She had not thought that anyone would have spotted her wearing her leaf headband protector as anything important.

The blonde girl knelt down next to the girl. "They finally confirmed Hinata as Clan Heiress, didn't they?"

"Even if such a thing existed, it would be a clan secret," the young girl said. She did not want to go into how much it had hurt, especially with the elders finally overriding her father and elder sister's objections.

"I need to know for sure. Some of the people that we are dealing with have access to training in the sealing arts," the jonin said with a strange firmness.

Hanabi finally nodded, removing her headband protector. The central 'X' of the Caged Bird seal sat upon her brow, showing her new status within the clan. Her pale eyes closed, fighting back tears of shame. It had seemed like so long ago that she had been a rising genius, even beating her much older sister.

But that had changed four years ago. Hinata had returned home from the Academy with a quiet determination. Her older sister had never explained what had caused her to change, but she had somehow developed a calm acceptance for fighting, even being willing to hurt her younger sister. Hanabi had actually started to improve even more at that point, but Hinata had stopped being a pushover.

If she ever had been.

"Hmm. Interesting design," Sheila stated under her breath as she willed her Sharingan eyes to relax. She made a single hand seal.

The young genin cried out in pain, collapsing while holding her forehead. "What-!? Why did you do that?" she asked in a quavering voice as she pushed up from the ground to her knees.

"I was determining if I was going to allow a member your branch house to be on my team." The young demigoddess frowned. "I'm leaning towards 'no' right now, as you can be attacked or killed quite easily once the weakness of your seal is known."

"You have been studying our family's seal for that long?" the young Hyuga asked even as she gulped.

"No, I figured it out just then. Others, on the other hand, may have had more than enough time to decipher the seal." Sheila paused just a second. "I can not state that protecting your bloodline is not important, but with such an Achilles Heel, Konoha's strength is but an illusion."

"The clan will never agree to removing the seal. If it is at all possible." The young kunoichi was confused. She thought that mastering seals required years (if not decades) of study. "How did you decipher the Caged Bird Seal so easily? I refuse to believe that was the first time you had seen it!" A bit of her cold arrogance had returned, battered though her ego had become after being sealed.

"Hanabi, I know that people use the term genius loosely. Maito Gai espouses the genius of hard work, while Kakashi holds that some people have more talent, though he too believes in hard work. My genius is literally superhuman in degree and scope. I have, in the last three years, studied over a hundred years worth of seals with an ability that almost no one else can even understand. Genius, savant, talented... all of these are but pale echoes to me." In fact, Sheila had been able to decipher weaker seals like the one that bound Shukaku to the Sand ninja Gaara within her first year. And her ability had only grown.

The young demigoddess laid her hand upon Hanabi's brow, causing the girl to think she was being condescending to her. Sheila nodded, getting the last bit of information via touch. While she was not quite a sensor, you had to be at least partially sensitive to explore the greater secrets of the ninja arts.

Hanabi blinked as Sheila started to make dozens, if not hundreds, of hand seals in meticulous order. Then, between one blink and another, Sheila's hand was back upon her brow.

"You might want to put your headband back on," the young demigoddess explained casually. "You are excused from our afternoon D-Rank missions. I would like you to pass on to your father that I would be happy to look at a seal to safeguard the Hyuga secrets that do not include such flawed controls that anyone can figure out." She then patted the girl on the top of her head and smiled.

The young Hyuga turned her mirror-shined protector around, seeing her unblemished forehead through the symbol of the leaf. "I-I-" She was literally unable to form a coherent thought.

"You are welcome."

"Thank you!" Hanabi forgo her normal haughty decorum and hugged his new jonin leader tightly. She then tied her headband protector back on and dashed out of the rugged, forested clearing and headed home as fast as her short legs could go.

Sheila sighed to herself. "Her father is not going to be quite so thrilled."

* * *

"What gives you the right to interfere with my clan?" Hiashi Hyuga asked in a simple, flat tone across the dining table from Sheila. Hinata and Hanabi were both present, on each side of the table from the two jonin. The remains of a scrumptious looking, classical dinner was laid out.

"I am only concerned where it intersects with the safety of my team. Such a glaring weakness in your protection is something that I can not allow with my team. So I removed it. As I am not an unreasonable person, I offered my help in an alternate solution to our conflicting issues." The dim, soft lights from the paper lanterns in the corner of the classic, paper-paneled walls seemed to give the conversation a slightly strange cadence. This was a place of tradition, fitting that everyone present wore expensive and fitted kimonos of style in understated colors.

The older Hyuga frowned at that. His pale eyes were narrowed in deep, frustrated thought. "Speak of your offer. Perhaps it will forestall the Elders from declaring war upon you."

"You seek to make it that the Byakugan can not be stolen. I have no problems with the secrets of Konoha's clans being kept hidden. Even if I have been adopted into the Uchiha, I would rather create my own techniques than steal ones from everyone else." She waited for him to nod in acknowledgement. Even the two young sisters nodded at this. "The dead man trigger within the seal, on the other hand, is an entirely different thing. This puts Konoha, my team and your daughter at risk from anyone that can trigger the secondary function."

"Such a secret is never given out, so it is meaningless to consider." Hiashi's tone was firm and polite.

"And it only took me about two minutes to decipher it from looking at the seal. Your clan has been lucky that no one else has figured this out since you created it," Sheila countered politely.

"Two... minutes?" Hiashi asked as his demeanor of superiority slipped. "Even the Fourth had said he would need weeks of study-" He clamped down hard on his emotions. He should have never admitted to talking to Minato Namikaze about the Caged Bird seal.

"I will admit that I have certain skills that allow me to cheat by deciphering the seals. My understanding of seals is probably as close to perfect as I can get without actually having read every hidden village's secret stash of seals. Which is why I offered to replace the one I removed from Hanabi with something that will work better." There were benefits of being a demigoddess of intellect, after all.

"How would you safeguard the clan with this seal beyond making it so that no one could remove our eyes?" the clan head demanded.

Now to the unpleasant part of the conversation. "The Caged Bird seal is to keep deserters and traitors from leaving the clan with your secrets, is that correct?" she asked.

Hiashi paused.

"Yes," Hinata said softly. "Our history tells us of other clans that fell when their secrets became common or public. We fear that end." The young heiress looked down upon the table morosely.

"I do not think another trigger to kill your traitors is the correct response. In lieu of this, I suggest that a tracking function that can be put into a seal that can be used by everyone in the clan."

"Unacceptable. Our clan could be tracked down and killed with impunity," Hiashi stated firmly, still the epitome of elegance and tradition.

"I had assumed that you might think of this that way, hence the concept that it requires at least five members of your own clan to be able to use this feature. The seals will interact in a fundamental way to allow you to know, as a clan, where those that are lost are located," she continued carefully. "This way no single traitor can harm your clan, but it removes the unjust pain and killing ability of the Caged Bird seal."

Both young Hyuga girl were very focused on this.

"Father, I would ask that we agree to this. I would even allow myself to be the first recipient of this new seal, so that there is no longer a Main and Branch part of the clan. Just Hyuga, as we should be," Hinata said with soft strength.

"It does address the greatest weaknesses of our current seal. Will you be able to teach us how to put it on our young?" Protection of the Byakugan and the ability to deal with traitors without the cruelty of the seal. It was an elegant solution.

"I would be quite willing to replace any Caged Bird seals and teach your own seal masters how to use this one. I would ask that I be allowed to place a similar seal with the tracking function upon any Konoha ninja at the behest of the Hokage." Sheila smiled impishly at him.

"The Hokages would like to keep their own renegades dealt with... I see no problem with this." Hiashi nodded.

* * *

Sasuke and his three chunin team ghosted behind Team 8 on the ground below. He felt it quite appropriate that Hinata Hyuga and Kiba Inuzuka were both part of his team. The last member was the Hokage's apprentice, Sakura Haruno. At least she had left most of her fangirl persona in the past, though she seemed to enjoy flirting with him.

Sheila looked over her genin team. "All right. Do you have everything for a three week mission to the Hidden Village of Waterfall?"

Konahamaru looked pained. "Yes. Really, we know what to pack."

Ikomi actually agreed for once. "Woohoo! First C-Rank mission! Look out world, here comes Team 8!"

The young Hyuga had to control herself not to roll her eyes in derision. Her headband protector was tied around her arm, allowing everyone to see the new seal that adorned all of the Hyuga except some of the die-hard Elders of the clan and her father. The almost Celtic-looking rune pattern that made a flower pattern on her forehead, down her nose slightly and curled around the eyes in sharp fangs gave her an exotic quality, she thought.

The Branch House members were suddenly finding the idea of not having a sword hanging above their heads liberating, though one Main House Elder had been attacked in the last month. That Neji and Hinata had both stepped forward and punished the attacker had helped quell an unsteady situation.

Sheila half-expected some hot head to attack her at some point shortly, but it appears that her prowess in the chunin exam years ago had given her a bit of a reputation as well as being a full jonin at fifteen.

The younger team headed out the gates and almost directly north, making a good pace through the trees. Only Ikomi appeared to be having some issues, as his chakra control was never the best.

They had crossed several ravines via wooden bridges as they continued to the north and west for the rest of the day. The Valley of the End was off to the east of them as they approached their first resting point. They picked a large tree on the edge of a ragged field.

"What happened here?" Ikomi asked as he brown eyes studied the area.

"A rather large batted during the Third Ninja War. It was the first time that Stone Ninja were pushed back. Several important jonin made their names in the battle here." Nowaki, Tsunade's brother, had been killed in the ambushes leading up to the attack. "It was called the Battle of Gold."

"Which Jonin?" Konohamaru asked curiously. "I know that grandfather was here, but I don't remember anyone else."

"The White Fang of Konoha, Kakashi Hatake's father Sakumo Hatake, made one of his last efforts in the war here. And this was one of Minato Namikaze's first battles as the Yellow Flash."

"The Fourth Hokage? Whoa! He has that unstoppable Flying Thunder God attack!" the excitable 'dead last' of this years genin shouted. Which really just meant he needed a bit of toughening up.

"It's not the attack that is unstoppable, but how he could use it," their young jonin leader explained as she made a small, smokeless campfire with a set of one-handed seals. "He was incredibly fast in his techniques and how he used them."

They settled down for the night as Sheila made a half-dozen shadow clones for perimeter watch, passing on an 'all clear' to Hinata.

It was Ikomi that came running up about a half an hour later. "Teacher! I found something pretty cool." He held up a rusty kunai for her inspection. "I found it in a tree. I think its one of seal-marked kunai that the Fourth Hokage used."

"It doesn't have the extra wing-blades-" Sheila noted as she took the blade from him, only to stop in shock.

This was her variety of seal-marked kunai. She tossed it across the way and then with a flash of teleportation, caught it. "So I was here at this battle." That brought a smile to her face as she realized she must have improved her understanding of time-space techniques enough to travel back to the battle.

In the distance Sasuke looked at the kunai that Sheila had in her hand and a tightness settled in his stomach. Was there going to be a rank higher than S for the secret of time travel? It seemed like he would find out, he decided. This was obviously too sensitive to send by anything less than personal teleportation.

He turned to Hinata. "You are in charge while I make a report to the Hokage. Treat this as at least an A-Rank secret."

Hinata just nodded as she started to put together what she had seen. Time travel?

Kiba's eyebrows shot up. "What? Did I miss something?" the tracker asked almost too loudly.

The other girl nodded slowly. "Yes, so don't ask." Her green eyes were glaring at the Inuzaka ninja.

Sasuke tossed the Hyuga heiress one of his specially marked kunai. "I'll be back shortly." With three handseals, he disappeared to a secreted seal in the Uchiha district. In moments he was moving across the rooftops at a blistering shunshin pace.

"Man, I hate missing things. This is going to bug me for the entire mission." The feral-looking boy looked quite irate at himself, slamming a fist into his palm.

Konohamaru had slipped off to try and find another kunai like Ikomi had. He was actually stealthy as he traversed the bushes on the edge of the rough and pock marked field. He stopped at what he thought was likely the center of the battle where a twenty foot section of black sand seemed to sink into a depression. He fingered the grit, noticing that it seemed as abrasive as coarse sand. "Weird." He brushed it off his leg, even as he finally gave up the hunt.

So he did not see a clump of grass fall onto the dead black sand, withering to dust over the next hour.

* * *

"The Hidden Village of Waterfall. They are nominally an ally of Konaha, so try to be polite," Sheila said to her genin team as they trotted down the trail. "We are supposed to deliver the treaty papers and get an update on military matters."

"And we do this every month?" Hanabi asked carefully.

Sheila nodded. "It is considered to be an easy C rank mission for genins." Either rookie genins like her team with a jonin leader or veteran genins that had not passed the chunin exam for one reason or another.

The team moved through the lightly forested area at a good pace, keeping an eye on out for ambushes. Up ahead they started to hear the thrumming of waters as it thundered onto a lake.

"Hold up," Sheila called out. She was looking off into the distance and to their left. She created a pair of clones and sent them to start circling the area while approaching the lake where the Waterfall ninja were waiting for them.

The three ninja in front of them matched the description of some of the more powerful of the small village.

"You are the courier?" the older, grizzled man called out. He seemed to be looking for something in their appearance.

"Yes." Sheila frowned. "Did you send an escort? You seem to be looking for someone else."

"We sent Fu out to meet you at the border. We'll take your papers and then we would ask that you depart," the old jonin said.

"The Leaf is an ally of the Waterfall. We would be more than happy to sweep a patrol on our way out back to the Land of Fire." She gave him a grim look as she handed over a scroll.

"We would appreciate it." With that, the three ninja of the Waterfall swished away.

"Hanabi, scan out to the limit of your byakugan," their own jonin ordered. "Ikomi and Konohamaru, I want you ready to fight at a moment's notice. We are moving out." With that, the blonde teen led them into the trees in the direction she had looked at earlier.

Their shadows were nearly invisible as they followed the group.

* * *

"This is just freaking great. She really did a number on my arm," the lanky gray-haired man complained as he held his strange triple-bladed scythe. His left arm was laying on the ground still wearing its red-clouds sleeve of his robe.

Kakuzu sneered at him, though it was hard to tell with his brutish features under his mask. "I'm just glad she was out here on her own with only a couple of genin." Several strands extended from his sleeves to start stitching his partner together.

Those ninja of Waterfall were quite dead, while Fu lay in a crumpled heap, broken and battered and quite unconscious in the woods.

Hidan grimaced as he grabbed his arm and held it up to the stump where it had been attached. "We have some company."

"More Waterfall trash?" Kakuzu asked in a disparaging tone. "If only they were worth more so I could wipe out my village for the fee."

"No, it's the One Tail container and three genin," Hidan said with a smirk on his lips as he readied his scythe. "We should capture her, too."

"She isn't our target," the ex-Waterfall ninja noted. "But I hear she has a seventy-five thousand Ryo bounty. And even more if brought to the Land of Wind." Avarice was always the mercenary's weak point.

"Yeah, their new Kazekage doesn't like her much, does he?"

Sheila stopped instantly as she spotted the red clouds on the robes and crumpled forms at their feet. Three shadow clones popped into existence to immediately turn around and snatch her genin to disappear in a flash of light. "Akatsuki. What are you doing here?"

"She's not alone," the death priest noted.

"The rest of the Neo Sannin?' Kakuzu inquired even as he readied himself. "Not all of them, just the Uchiha with a Hyuga, Inakuza and some girl with pink hair. So only two A-Ranked brats and some chump chunin." Grudge tendrils were moving through the ground from his feet, setting up seals at the edge of huge circle that he was in the center of.

Sakura's forehead showed a throbbing vein as she had to almost be physically held back by Kiba on the limb she sat on. "Chump chunin?" she bellowed while shaking her fist at the missing ninja of the Waterfall.

Both members of Akatsuki looked at the girl like she was insane.

"Has that village always been full of lunatics?" Hiden asked his partner.

"Pretty much," the other missing ninja replied. Of course, it was also rumored that the more crazy you were, the more powerful you were also.

It would be nice to have Naruto here, Sasuke had to admit to himself, but even so the three chunin on his squad and Sheila should be more than enough-

"Barrier activation, one-thousand feet out," Hinata called out as her Byakugan spotted the lime-green energy field appear. It would be nearly invisible in the air, but her eyes were Hyuga after all.

Kakuzu noted the variant seal on her forehead. "Branch house sealed? I guess I won't be stealing your eyes easily." The black market in eye-technique eyes was always good money.

"There is no branch, only the whole tree that is Hyuga," the quiet girl said in quiet determination. Now that she did not have to worry about her younger sister being sealed with the old mark, she could show herself more fully.

"You guys don't have any idea what you are dealing with," Kiba boasted. "Come on, Akamaru."

The huge wolf-hound barked an affirmative.

Hidan, the Akatsuki member with the tri-scythe, looked bored as hell. "Yeah, yeah. Can we just kill them now that they can't run away?"

"Remember, we can't kill Sheila," Kakuzu said even as he started to go through hand seals for a grand fireball.

Sasuke's triple-tomoe Sharingan was spinning already, allowing him recognize the technique before it was finished. His hands flashed through a double set of seal as he expelled 'howling blizzard' blast from his mouth, snuffing out the fireball.

The death-priest looked at that and whistled. "I guess their dual-chakra techniques are superior to your boring old techniques."

"Shut up, Hidan. Shouldn't you be killing those chunin?" the missing ninja from the Waterfall nearly growled out.

"Yeah yeah," Hidan shouted as he charged over toward Hinata, Sakura and Kiba with his Inazuka partner. The scythe whirled around him in a flailing, dangerous way.

Sakura and Hinata were able to dodge or deflect using their special training and styles, but Kiba and his partner both got hit with minor cuts. Hidan then bounded backwards at a rapid pace while smiling maniacally.

A mystical symbol-circle appeared at Hidan's feet even as a skull like appearance of white tattoos appears on his face. "You're fucked now. Jashin be praised."

Sakura was sidling to the left, while Hinata was moving right. Sasuke was keeping an eye on both enemies while Sheila was discovering that the whole area was sealed from spatial movement as she failed to teleport to her special kunai.

"Interesting counter," she said, even as she blitzed through hand-seals faster than most jonin could even follow. Slamming her palm to the ground, she sent out her own barrier to within just inches of Kakuzu's barrier.

"What was that?" the old ninja demanded as she tossed a kunai again.

With a double flash, she snatched the unconscious Fu from his feet and reappeared over fifty feet away.

"A counter-counter, of course. It's one of those we knew you knew that we knew you knew about countering spatial teleporting, so we came up with our own counters to counter it. Duh." Her eyes had already noted that Fu was beaten nearly to death and would not wake up for quite a while.

"Say, kid, sorry to do this to you... No, I'm not really... but I need to start weeding out you punks," Hidan called out Kiba. The Inuzuka was preparing one of his family techniques with Akamaru when Hidan stabbed himself in the leg. "Take that, you little ass-wipe."

Kiba and Akamaru had both collapsed to the ground as matching wounds appeared on his calf. "What the hell," the wild-looking chunin asked in surprise.

"Sympathetic damage transference. Sakura, destroy that mystical circle without getting cut," Sheila called out.

The strawberry-blonde nodded as she rapidly parsed the words. "Shannaro! You bet!" With a kya, she charged towards Hidan and then slammed her heel down on the ground in a massive heel-kick. When her foot slammed against the ground, it shattered the ground in a ten foot circle and destroyed the symbol.

Hidan had found himself airborne for just a second as the sound of chirping from behind him. A lightning covered knife-hand stabbed through his heart. "Oh, damn that hurts. Shit. Fuck."

Sasuke pulled his hand out of the enemy ninja, looking quite surprised that he was still talking. In fact, he wasn't stopping, so hopped backwards before Hidan could sweep around and cut him with his scythe. "You know, that's an instantly lethal technique." Stupid Kakashi couldn't even create a proper instant-kill technique.

"Jashin ain't going to let no shitty little kid kill his high priest," the death-priest stated loudly and then started to laugh.

"He's all yours then, Sheila," Sasuke called out much to Hidan's confusion.

Her response was to form the wood release effect, trying to trap Hidan with the rapidly growing branches, but he was amazingly fast, surprising all of the Leaf Ninja with his blurring movement. He not only flipped and spun out of the way, but his weird triple-scythe cut any thin branches that might have impeded his motion.

From Kazuku's back erupted four masks that started to spit out fire, lightning, earth and wind techniques at all of the them, forcing them to break off their attacks and back off.

"They are monsters," Hinata said in a soft voice.

Sasuke gave her a quick glare as he went through some more hand-seals to unleashed a torrent of lava at Kakuzu which the strange missing-ninja avoided by the narrowest margin. "They're all S Rank Nins," Sasuke told her as he caused most lava to spew up from the ground. "That's almost a requirement." He was not going to mention that he and Sheila were at least A-Rank in the other nations Bingo Books.

Hidan didn't like the look in Sheila's eyes as she seemed to be tracking him. Then there was a loud swish filling the air and the twisted priest was struck by several red-glowing kunai as she teleported in and out. Something about the attack hurt him even more than he expected. Little wounds like that should barely affect him, but these actually caused him to stumble.

Sasuke hit the Akatsuki death priest with a massive burst of lava from under him.

"I just hope that doesn't just piss him off," Kiba called out.

"Anger is good," Sheila said.

"You little kids burned me good, but I'm so going to murder you-" Hidan was shouting when he was knocked out of the way by a massive gust from Kakuzu again.

"Shut up, Hidan, and start killing them." The man with four mask growing out of his body on ropy tendrils looked incredibly angry.

That was when Hinata appeared next to a mask and tapped several spots on the tendril and mask, causing the mask to fall down to the ground.

"What did you do to my mask?" Kakuzu demanded even as she spun into some defense as his attacks found her. A flicker-flash from Sheila got the Hyuga chunin out of the explosion of fire, wind and lightning that rained down upon where she had been.

"She's a Hyuga, dumb shit, so she used her Gentle Fist crap on it." Hidan seemed pleased that his partner was also having problems.

"I figured that out," Kakuzu growled.

"There you go, Kiba. Keep your partner out though, I can't really heal him like I did you," Sakura explained as she finished stitching his leg back together. The Inuzuka nodded as he got back to his feet.

Sasuke threw one of his special kunai, even as he went through the handsigns to activate the lightning edge.

"Brat. Like I'm going to let you hit my lightning heart-" Kakuzu said as he moved the mask out of the way of the blade while he got it ready to unleash another lightning technique.

With a flash and a sweep of a controlled lightning edge, he cleaved the lightning technique and mask in one arc. He kept up his motion to zip out of the combat range. "So that's how Kakashi did that. Kakuzu's got hearts inside each mask. So we have to kill him three more times."

Hidan started laughing. "Man, two jonin and three chumps are making us work for it."

Sheila held out her hand, causing a swirl of dust to pull out of a vial pouch on her black and gray jonin vest. With a hiss it turned into a swirling disk centered on her flat hand. With a blur of motion, she charged over towards the death priest. They both swung out.

Hidan had a smirk on his face until the head of his scythe fell off. "Wha-!?" Then he fell into multiple parts as his torso was split in half and both of his arms came off from one cut.

"Sasuke," the demigoddess called out as she sent the diamond dust back into its pouch.

They both ran through the same set of double-hand seals. Two gouts of lava erupted from the ground and then splashed through Kakuzu's desperate water burst to engulf the helpless, swearing member of Akatsuki.

"One creep down, one ugly to go," Kiba crowed even as he launched himself into a ripping fang attack. A massive fireball, amplified by wind hit him, sending him rolling to the ground with heavy burns despite the defense the attack gave him. "Shit."

Hinata landed in between him and Kakuzu, hands up in the gentle fist pose, her Byakugan gaze holding her steady. Sakura appeared next to Kiba and then disappeared with a swish of a replacement.

The remaining Akatsuki seemed unperturbed by the standoff with the three Leaf Ninja. "You know, if you were the First Hokage, I might be worried. He was a tough fight."

"He really was," Sheila agreed, surprising the old missing ninja. "I think he was more undead than you though."

"You fought Hashirama Senju?" Kakuzu asked warily. He had used that so often for intimidation that he had not thought someone would use it on him.

"I think its an Uchiha thing," she admitted. She flickered out of the way as tendril vines shot from the earth below her, puncturing her afterimage.

"What is it going to take to kill you?" the ninja from the Hidden Village of the Waterfall asked angrily.

"More than you have," Sasuke said with a smirk. "I mean, you had these masks to use multiple elements and you can't even combine them right." He started on a blindingly fast set of doublet hand-seals and breathed out a spray of ice daggers that blew right through the fire and wind that Kakuzu tried to use to block it.

Even as she landed from her dodge, Sheila was finishing her hand-seals and then slapping her hands on the ground to create a huge tree to try and engulf the missing ninja.

He leaped up into the air to avoid the tree, trailing tendril vines. Hinata skidded over to where they stretched from the ground to start tapping them with her fingers. Each one she tapped snapped and ripped as the chakra in them quit controlling their ability to stretch.

The missing ninja hissed in annoyance as he lost his control of his leap. He snagged against another tree that had suddenly grown. Branches reached out like limbs to get the ancient ninja this time.

"Your bounty should be double what they are asking. No, triple," Kakuzu remarked as he was finding this fight was getting harder and more dangerous. It seemed like that village had each generation try to top the previous ones. And what the next one would do to top these definitely concerned him.

"Now, Sasuke," Sheila called out as she flipped two of her special kunai into a spin in the air in front of her. Her modified (and harder to use) technique activated just after she caught the two blades and then threw them at the missing ninja from Waterfall. They replicated, but kept a rather random portion of the momentum and spread out in a cloud as they shot at him.

Sasuke nodded, even as his silver-rimmed mangekyo sharingan activated and he tossed another of his teleport kunai to the left of the Waterfall missing ninja.

Kakuzu snarled even as he used his two remaining external hearts to to send out a blistering whirlwind of superheated fire and wind. That should melt the kunai. "You two are the dangerous ones-"

And his world suddenly filled with gold flashes as he saw dozens of the blonde girl's after-images, grabbing a stabbing seemingly everywhere with her teleport blades. His body, composed of his Earth Fear Grudge tendrils, was almost entirely shredded.

But the last thing he saw with his pale, inhuman eyes was two red eyes with swirling, shurikan tomoe. He suddenly found himself in a black and white world.

"This is my version of Tsukiyomi. But rather than controlling this world to force you to relive torture for days, dying over and over... I am just going to slow everything down as we destroy your body..." Sasuke's voice said from the darkness.

"What do you mean?" the quasi-immortal missing ninja demanded.

"We've already destroyed your last heart and chopped off your head. I just don't want you enacting a suicide technique," the last loyal Uchiha said simply.

"Yeah! We showed him," Sakura nearly bellowed out in the real world. She pumped her fists in a quick victory pose.

"Kiba, Hinata; gather up the surviving Waterfall ninja. We are going to evacuate to back to Konoha," Sasuke ordered as he felt his Sharingan powered genjitsu fail with the death of the ancient member of the Akatsuki. The young jonin found irony in the fact that after he put aside his need to become stronger than his brother that he'd taken part in defeating two of his associates.

And knowing the truth of things wondered if Itachi was proud of him. Something he never thought he'd muse after that night again.

"Right," Kiba stated as he lifted up one of the Waterfill nins.

Ice shards and snow filled the area with the congealing lava, freezing it solid and breaking it in black shards of razor sharp rock.

"Kiba, you are up. Recover everything of the enemy ninja," Sasuke ordered. "Sheila, I want a destruction seal out to half a kilometer."

"Not asking for much, are you. That going to need a ton of chakra," the demigoddess complained.

Sasuke quickly helped gather most of the remains of Kazuku and Hidan (who's scorched head was still swearing at them).

"Why are we gathering this up?" Kiba complained.

"S-Rank secret. Ask again and you'll be visiting T&I, Inuzuka," the Sharingan user stated in a cold tone.

"O-oh, sorry," the chunin said, shocked at the insinuation.

"Hinata, is the enemies anti-teleportation seal still in place?" Sheila asked, black marks having formed around her eyes, making her look comically almost like a Japanese raccoon with gold and black diamond irises.

"Their technique is disrupted," the Hyuga heiress confirmed.

Sasuke picked up the defeated demon container of Waterfall. "Give us thirty seconds warning, Sheila."

Two clones poofed into existence next to her. "Thirty seconds," she called out as the three of them started to flash through dozens of hand seals in a flicker as marks appeared on the blasted, churned earth.

In a flash, they disappeared before the half-kilometer was raised by a pillar of superheated fire that scorched everything down to the ground.

Outside the barrier, a strange bird with purple Rinnegan eyes watched from the shadows in a tree over a mile away.

Pein's real face frowned in his hidden base deep within the Hidden Village of Rain. "Konan, prepare for a direct assault on Konoha. They have become too dangerous."

His long time friend looked surprised. "What happened?"

"Kakuzu and Hidan have been defeated and their bodies removed from the battle site, then the area was cleansed in a kinjitsu technique that destroyed the whole area. Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, is trying to be tricky." The haggard form of the real Pein frowned from his Throne of Thorns (as he privately referred to it).

"Is that wise, Pein? Konan asked carefully.

"It is necessary."

She nodded then left the room.

"Tobi," Pein called out to the seemingly empty, shadow filled room. "No, with that posture, you are here as Madara."

"Do you really think that it is the best time to attack Konoha head on?" the masked figure said, his one Mangekyo Sharingan swirling angrily.

"I have Leaf jonin who politely wanted to speak to Nagato of the Hidden Valley of the Rain. She is also currently carrying a letter from my old teacher. They are circling close and may unveil our conspiracy. Rain may not survive if Konoha attacks," Pein said in a hard tone.

"You knew there may be sacrifices that must be made, Pein," Madara said in a warning tone of voice.

"I would rather sacrifice Konoha," the leader of Rain retorted.

Madara just nodded, a smile hidden behind his swirling mask.

* * *

A young figure left the hidden exit (never entrance) to Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Division. The ANBU mask was a simple affair, as they all were, but was a slightly different style of bird with 'horns' than most in Konoha had seen before. With a swish, the ninja disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

The interrogation of Kazuku, the S-Ranked missing ninja had been quite illuminating. The fact that Zabuza Momoto had been used for the Impure World Resurrection had bothered Sheila, but she tried to squash her feelings about the swordsman.

Sheila had a small frown on her face as she removed her owl mask as she entered her apartment. A soft glow of seals upon the wall lit up as she considered the interrogation that she had just left. Akatsuki was wanting to gather all of the Tailed Beasts together in a statue that Pein could summon. Fu was recovering in the Konoha hospital under a subtle genjitsu to encourage her to stay, as she would feel worse than she really was. Sheila had mentioned that the older girl may need to be around demon containers that did not feel alienated.

Tsunade was gathering her shinobi, as she was not going to stand for a minor village being behind such a group of S-Rank criminals. She was even considering invoking the mutual defence part of the Suna-Konoha treaty. But that might entail 'buying' Suna's cooperation.

And the Hokage was willing to give back Shukaku.

It had taken everything Sheila had to not show a really negative reaction, as she needed the One Tail for her plan. So when she activated her normal security seals, the ANBU watching her did not catch that she activated fifteen extra layers.

Because she was not going to let future politics that were not going to exist dictate about her going back into the past and rewriting things. She slipped scrolls into several pockets on her black and gray leaf-patterned gi. Her seldom used pistol was verified to be ready and cleaned.

She quickly penned a letter explained her leave-taking and her reasons.

All that was left was to bend space and time. The teen demigoddess felt her eyes turn golden with a diamond in the middle as she entered her 'mindscape' to stand before the one occupied of the nine cages in the dark cavern.

"Shukaku."

The one-tailed tanuka looked up. "Come to try to convince me to be less crazy?" it asked, echoes of the mad priest that had been bound into Shukaku long ago still in its voice. "Or have you come to bloody your sand again?"

"I'm coming to get a large amount of your power, as I'm leaving."

The tanuka made of malevolent chakra snorted. "No. No-no-no-no-no." It then threw itself at the unbreakable bars of its seal-prison.

"I didn't say I was going to ask," the demigoddess replied. "I've been siphoning off power for over a year into a separate seal. Filtered through a wood release technique, it has none of your anger and madness. I wanted longer, but Tsunade is threatening to have me give you back to the Fifth Kazekage, Gaara of the Sand."

"He understands anger! How to spill blood on the sand! All for his mother that spurned him with her death!" The tanuka chittered as it arched its back.

"From what I can gather you and the previous Kazekage did your best to destroy Gaara's mind and destroy his trust in anyone by having his uncle try to kill him," Sheila noted. "Sounds very much like what my family would do."

"And they are all dead," Shukaku cackled.

"Only in a certain frame of reference," the demigoddess said. She closed her eyes, then opened them in the real world.

She started to go through handseals in a flicker, hundreds in a row each with an exacting, precise amount of chakra; shaped, formed and with exacting control to fill the seal that grew on the kunai in front of her. The array glowed a soft red of demonic chakra, seemingly sucking in all light as a fractured line of existence had red light drawn through it across her body from her right hip to her left armpit.

Pain was growing in limbs as space and time continued to be bent, folded and mangled in a very specific manner. With a flicker of red light, she disappeared.

In a perfectly circular area centered on where the kunai had existed, the wood of the floor started to crumble to black dust at a fast pace. Within a minute, the room and everything in it was cascading downward in black dust. But in the apartment that she shared with only one other tenant, there was no one to notice, as Naruto Uzumaki was completing his sage training with the Toads.

It was ANBU that first noticed something odd, as the roof of the building developed a perfectly round hole in its roof. It made the first investigator sick when he went in, so the team pulled back.

Tsunade arrived at the ten minute mark. "Crane, what's going on?"

"Some sort of destruction technique. It's perfectly circular, centered on an apartment on the top floor," the ANBU responded.

"From the north side or the south side?" the Hokage asked with a frown.

"The south-east side-"

"Sparrow, get me the Sheila at the library. Now," the old woman said angrily. "Mouse, get me Sasuke Uchiha. Tell him he needs to explain some things about his clan member."

Both ANBU swished off at top flicker speeds.

Sasuke showed up very quickly indeed. "Lady Hokage?"

"What was your teammate doing that is destroying that building?" Tsunade demanded in a very imperious voice. She watched the young jonin zip up and then zip back.

"She must have used a time-space technique. It's crumbling like that sand from the site of the Battle of Gold where one of her genins... found one of her weapons that must have been at that battle. " Sasuke realized he'd have to stop Sheila from trying to alter time. Again. Was he going to spend his entire life doing this?

That is if Sheila wasn't killed because of this.

"I need Jirayia and Naruto recalled immediately. I want to know why this is happening," the Fifth Hokage declared.

Sparrow reappeared with Sheila in tow. "Lady Hokage?" the clone asked carefully.

"What is going on?"

"I- woke up about ten minutes ago with the memories of being created almost a week ago, Lady Hokage. I don't know specifically what is going on-"

"Quit hedging. This is not a spur of the moment thing. What were you planning?" Tsunade demanded.

"I'm must be going home earlier than planned. I don't understand why its crumbling like that though-" The clone stopped as thought as hard as possible. "I hate being stupid. I'm only a fraction of the normal me. But I think I made a horrible mistake."

The leader of the the Hidden Village in the Leaf frowned. "What did you break?"

"I think I might have broken... space and time. Catastrophically." The clone looked worried.

"So we need to evacuate the village to the shelters?" the Hokage asked.

"That's not quite the scale we need to be looking at," the clone said unhappily. "Think 'planet' and 'other dimension'."

"Uchiha, get Jiraiya now." She snapped around to her ANBU. "Get a barrier up using eight ANBU at a minimum."

Sasuke did the handsign to activate his teleport technique to the kunai he had given Naruto earlier

* * *

Konan had crafted a new tree overlooking Konoha in the distance out of her sheafs of paper. It looked quite peaceful at night. She narrowed her eyes as she looked back to her longtime companion and friend, Pein. His six Rinnegan imbued bodies were arrayed around his 'throne' that he was bound to in his near crippled form.

"Tomorrow will be a crimson dawn." Pein's ragged form sat in stillness, his lavender ringed eyes closed.

"And Konoha's lies will finally be wiped away," Konan replied softly.


End file.
